Born this week
Saturday December 20th, 2025
George Santayana
December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine By which alone the mortal heart is led Unto the thinking of the thought divine.
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known as George Santayana, was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Santayana ...
Jane Austen
December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most ...
Margaret Mead
December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured author and speaker in the mass media throughout the ...
J. Paul Getty
December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976
I buy when other people are selling.
Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living ...
Joseph Stalin
December 18, 1878 – March 5, 1953
In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance.
Joseph Stalin or Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Among the ...
John Greenleaf Whittier
December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892
Beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast.
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is ...
Carter G. Woodson
December 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950
The mere imparting of information is not education.
Carter Godwin Woodson was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African ...
George Whitefield
December 16, 1714 – September 30, 1770
Nothing is more generally known than our duties which belong to Christianity and yet, how amazing is it, nothing is less practiced?
George Whitefield, also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican preacher who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and ...
Jean Genet
December 19, 1910 – April 15, 1986
I recognize in thieves, traitors and murderers, in the ruthless and the cunning, a deep beauty - a sunken beauty.
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was ...
Max Lerner
December 20, 1902 – June 5, 1992
The real sadness of fifty is not that you change so much but that you change so little.
Maxwell "Max" Alan Lerner was an American journalist and educator known for his controversial syndicated column. After immigrating from ...
Morihei Ueshiba
December 14, 1883 – April 26, 1969
To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.
Morihei Ueshiba was a martial artist and founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder" Kaiso or ...
Paracelsus
December 17, 1493 – September 24, 1541
The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.
Paracelsus was a Swiss German Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist. He founded the discipline of ...
Muriel Rukeyser
December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980
Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry.
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and ...
Noel Coward
December 16, 1899 – March 26, 1973
The higher the building the lower the morals.
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time ...
Ty Cobb
December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961
Don't come home a failure.
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb, nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in rural Narrows, ...
Thomas Chandler Haliburton
December 17, 1796 – August 27, 1865
A college education shows a man how little other people know.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton was a politician, judge, and author who lived in the British Colony of Nova Scotia. He was the first ...
Paul Klee
December 18, 1879 – June 29, 1940
Art does not reproduce what we see rather, it makes us see.
Paul Klee was a painter born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered to be a Swiss German. His highly individual style was ...
Sidney Hook
December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989
Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.
Sidney Hook was an American philosopher of the Pragmatist school known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy ...
Lester Bangs
December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982
The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious.
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author, and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was ...
John Selden
December 16, 1584 – November 30, 1654
Old friends are best.
John Selden was an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a ...
Steven Biko
December 18, 1946 – September 12, 1977
Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
Stephen Bantu Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black ...
Ford Frick
December 19, 1894 – April 8, 1978
Keep your temper. A decision made in anger is never sound.
Ford Christopher Frick was an American sportswriter and baseball executive. After working as a teacher and as a sportswriter for the New ...
Branch Rickey
December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965
Luck is the residue of design.
Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He was perhaps best ...
Morrie Schwartz
December 20, 1916 – November 4, 1995
Everything that gets born dies.
Morris "Morrie" S. Schwartz was a sociology professor at Brandeis University and an author. He was the subject of the best-selling book ...