Born this week
Sunday July 12th, 2026
Henry David Thoreau
July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and ...
William Osler
July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919
The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet was a Canadian physician and one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created ...
Iris Murdoch
July 15, 1919 – February 8, 1999
The cry of equality pulls everyone down.
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual ...
Mary Baker Eddy
July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910
Happiness is spiritual, born of truth and love. It is unselfish therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, a new religious movement, in the United States in the latter half of the 19th ...
William Makepeace Thackeray
July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863
Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a ...
Claude Bernard
July 12, 1813 – February 10, 1878
The investigator should have a robust faith - and yet not believe.
Claude Bernard was a French physiologist. Historian I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men ...
Walter Benjamin
July 15, 1892 – September 26, 1940
The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German philosopher and cultural critic. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German ...
Red Skelton
July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997
His death was the first time that Ed Wynn ever made anyone sad.
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television acts between 1937 and 1971 and ...
Jerry Rubin
July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994
I'm famous. That's my job.
Jerry Rubin (July 14, 1938 - November 28, 1994) was an American social activist during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a ...
Richard Armour
July 15, 1906 – February 28, 1989
Beauty is only skin deep, and the world is full of thin skinned people.
Richard Willard Armour was an American poet and author who wrote more than 65 books.
Isaac Watts
July 17, 1674 – November 25, 1748
I would not change my blest estate for all the world calls good or great.
Isaac Watts was an English Christian hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymn writer, his work was part of ...
Edward Bond
July 18, 1934 – August 18, 1920
Religion enabled society to organise itself to debate goodness, just as Greek drama had once done.
Edward Bond is an English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them ...
Nathan Bedford Forrest
July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877
I've got no respect for any young man who won't join the colors.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a ...
Max Jacob
July 12, 1876 – March 5, 1944
Friendship is inexplicable, it should not be explained if one doesn't want to kill it.
Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.
Emmeline Pankhurst
July 15, 1858 – June 14, 1928
Trust in God - she will provide.
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote. ...
Thomas Bulfinch
July 15, 1796 – May 27, 1867
For Mythology is the handmaid of literature and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.
Thomas Bulfinch was an American writer born in Newton, Massachusetts. Bulfinch belonged to a well-educated Bostonian merchant family of ...
Charles Frohman
July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915
Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. ...
Johnny Thunders
July 15, 1952 – April 23, 1991
The Dolls were an attitude. If nothing else they were a great attitude.
Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr., was an American rock and roll/punk rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He came to ...
Anatole Broyard
July 16, 1920 – October 11, 1990
Lapped in poetry, wrapped in the picturesque, armed with logical sentences and inalienable words.
Anatole Paul Broyard was an American writer, literary critic and editor for The New York Times. In addition to his many reviews and ...
Shmuel Y. Agnon
July 17, 1888 – February 17, 1970
If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by ...
George Savile
July 18, 1726 – January 10, 1784
Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.
Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet (18 July 1726 - 10 January 1784) was an English politician. Savile was born in Savile House, London, the ...