Blathery

Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Born this week

Rabindranath Tagore

May 7, 1861August 7, 1941

Age considers youth ventures.

Rabindranath Tagore, also written Rabīndranātha Thākura, sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and ...

Thomas Huxley

May 4, 1825June 29, 1895

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS FLS was an English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of ...

Sigmund Freud

May 6, 1856September 23, 1939

If youth knew if age could.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, now known as the father of psychoanalysis. Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine at the ...

Harry S. Truman

May 8, 1884December 26, 1972

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman ...

E. W. Howe

May 3, 1853October 3, 1937

For every quarrel a man and wife have before others, they have a hundred when alone.

Edgar Watson Howe, sometimes referred to as E. W. Howe, was an American novelist and newspaper and magazine editor in the late 19th and ...

Niccolo Machiavelli

May 3, 1469June 21, 1527

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence ...

Soren Kierkegaard

May 5, 1813November 11, 1855

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the ...

Robert Browning

May 7, 1812December 12, 1889

A face to lose youth for, to occupy age With the dream of, meet death with.

Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the ...

Karl Marx

May 5, 1818March 14, 1883

The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for much ...

Christopher Morley

May 5, 1890March 28, 1957

A man who has never made a woman angry is a failure in life.

Christopher Morley (May 5, 1890 - March 28, 1957) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage ...

Orson Welles

May 6, 1915October 10, 1985

The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age.

George Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for ...

Golda Meir

May 3, 1898December 8, 1978

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.

Golda Meir was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, politician and the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Meir was elected Prime Minister of ...

Audrey Hepburn

May 4, 1929January 20, 1993

I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was active during Hollywood's Golden ...

Joseph Joubert

May 7, 1754May 4, 1824

Genius begins great works labor alone finishes them.

Joseph Joubert was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées, which was published posthumously. From the ...

James M. Barrie

May 9, 1860June 19, 1937

The best place a person can die, is where they die for others.

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child ...

Horace Mann

May 4, 1796August 2, 1859

Education alone can conduct us to that enjoyment which is, at once, best in quality and infinite in quantity.

Horace Mann was an American politician and educational reformer. A Whig devoted to promoting speedy modernization, he served in the ...

Francis Quarles

May 8, 1592September 8, 1644

Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor.

Francis Quarles (8 May 1592 - 8 September 1644) was an English poet most famous for his Emblem book aptly entitled Emblems. Francis was ...

Theodore White

May 6, 1915May 15, 1986

Power in America today is control of the means of communication.

Theodore Harold White was an American political journalist and historian, known for his wartime reporting from China and accounts of the ...

Jose Ortega y Gasset

May 9, 1883October 18, 1955

An 'unemployed' existence is a worse negation of life than death itself.

José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist working during the first half of the 20th century while Spain ...

Gregory Bateson

May 9, 1904July 4, 1980

All experience is subjective.

Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work ...

May Sarton

May 3, 1912July 16, 1995

In the country of pain we are each alone.

May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton, an American poet, novelist and memoirist.

Anne Baxter

May 7, 1923December 12, 1985

It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes.

Anne Baxter was an American actress of stage and screen. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sophie in ...

Angela Carter

May 7, 1940February 16, 1992

In a secular age, an authentic miracle must purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world.

Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works. In 2008, The Times ...

Jane Roberts

May 8, 1929September 5, 1984

Dreaming or awake, we perceive only events that have meaning to us.

Dorothy Jane Roberts was an American author, poet, self-proclaimed psychic and spirit medium, who claimed to channel an energy personality ...

Fulton J. Sheen

May 8, 1895December 9, 1979

Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

Fulton John Sheen was an American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and ...

Henry J. Kaiser

May 9, 1882August 24, 1967

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition - in having put forth the best within you.

Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser ...

William Moulton Marston

May 9, 1893May 2, 1947

Every crisis offers you extra desired power.

William Moulton Marston, also known by the pen name Charles Moulton, was an American psychologist, inventor and comic book writer who ...

Keith Haring

May 4, 1958February 16, 1990

I have been enlightened. I have fallen into poetry and it has swallowed me up.

Keith Allen Haring was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by ...

Tammy Wynette

May 5, 1942April 6, 1998

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman giving all your love to just one man.

Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally by her stage name Tammy Wynette, was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of ...

Ludwig Borne

May 6, 1786February 12, 1837

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

Karl Ludwig Börne (6 May 1786 - 12 February 1837) was a German political writer and satirist. Karl Ludwig Börne was born Loeb Baruch on ...

Randall Jarrell

May 6, 1914October 14, 1965

The people who live in a golden age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks.

Randall Jarrell was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, novelist, and the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the ...

Rudolph Valentino

May 6, 1895August 23, 1926

Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams.

Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla, professionally known as Rudolph Valentino, was an ...

Edmund Wilson

May 8, 1895June 12, 1972

The human imagination has already come to conceive the possibility of recreating human society.

Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 - June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary and social critic, and noted man of letters. Wilson was born ...

J. M. Barrie

May 9, 1860June 19, 1937

His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants' hall.

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child ...