Blathery

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

Born this week

Albert Einstein

March 14, 1879April 18, 1955

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist and philosopher of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of ...

Clare Boothe Luce

March 10, 1903October 9, 1987

A woman's best protection is a little money of her own.

Clare Boothe Luce was the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad. A versatile author, she is best known for ...

Lawrence Welk

March 11, 1903May 17, 1992

By 1969, when I celebrated 45 years in the music business, I also had 45 people in our musical family.

Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to ...

Jack Kerouac

March 12, 1922October 21, 1969

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.

Jack Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen ...

Earl Nightingale

March 12, 1921March 28, 1989

Always keep that happy attitude. Pretend that you are holding a beautiful fragrant bouquet.

Earl Nightingale was an American motivational speaker and author, known as the "Dean of Personal Development." He was the voice in the ...

Luis Barragan

March 9, 1902November 22, 1988

I don't divide architecture, landscape and gardening to me they are one.

Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín was a Mexican architect. He studied as an engineer in his home town, while undertaking the entirety of ...

Jim Valvano

March 10, 1946April 28, 1993

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.

James Thomas Anthony "Jim" Valvano, nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball coach and broadcaster. While the head basketball ...

Augustus Hare

March 13, 1834January 22, 1903

The power of faith will often shine forth the most when the character is naturally weak.

Augustus John Cuthbert Hare (13 March 1834 - 22 January 1903) was an English writer and raconteur. He was the youngest son of Francis ...

Robert Casey

March 14, 18901962

Legal abortion will never rest easy on this nation's conscience.

Robert Joseph Casey was born March 14, 1890, in Beresford, South Dakota, and attended St. Mary's College in St. Mary's, Kansas from 1907 to ...

Maxwell Maltz

March 10, 1889April 7, 1975

If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.

Maxwell Maltz was an American cosmetic surgeon and author of Psycho-Cybernetics, which was a system of ideas that he claimed could improve ...

Torquato Tasso

March 11, 1544April 25, 1595

Grave was the man in years, in looks, in word, his locks were grey, yet was his courage green.

Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata, in which he depicts a highly ...

Charlotte Whitton

March 8, 1896January 25, 1975

Man cannot live by incompetence alone.

Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton, OC, CBE was a Canadian feminist and mayor of Ottawa. She was the first female mayor of a major city in Canada, ...

George Berkeley

March 12, 1685January 12, 1753

Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.

George Berkeley, also known as Bishop Berkeley, was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he ...

Harold Wilson

March 11, 1916May 24, 1995

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister ...

Howard Aiken

March 8, 1900March 14, 1973

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

Howard Hathaway Aiken (March 8, 1900 - March 14, 1973) was a pioneer in computing, being the original conceptual designer behind IBM's ...

Gene Fowler

March 8, 1890July 2, 1960

He has a profound respect for old age. Especially when it's bottled.

Gene Fowler was an American journalist, author and dramatist. He was born in Denver, Colorado. When his mother remarried, young Gene took ...

Kenneth Grahame

March 8, 1859July 6, 1932

After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.

Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows, one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote ...

Alan Hovhaness

March 8, 1911June 21, 2000

I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God.

Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog ...

George M. Humphrey

March 8, 1890January 20, 1970

You can't set a hen in one morning and have chicken salad for lunch.

George Magoffin Humphrey (March 8, 1890 - January 20, 1970) was an American lawyer, businessman and Cabinet secretary. Raised in ...

William Cobbett

March 9, 1763June 18, 1835

Happiness, or misery, is in the mind. It is the mind that lives.

William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament ...

Ralph Abernathy

March 11, 1926April 17, 1990

Christians should be ready for a change because Jesus was the greatest changer in history.

Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. ...

Michael Polanyi

March 11, 1891February 22, 1976

The process of philosophic and scientific enlightenment has shaken the stability of beliefs held explicitly as articles of faith.

Michael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and ...

Simon Newcomb

March 12, 1835July 11, 1909

My father was the most rational and the most dispassionate of men.

Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important ...

Hugh Walpole

March 13, 1884June 1941

Happiness comes from... some curious adjustment to life.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was a New Zealand-born English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in ...