Born this week
Sunday February 8th, 2026
Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the ...
John Ruskin
February 8, 1819 – January 20, 1900
He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin.
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social ...
Thomas Paine
February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine was an English and American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. As the author of the two ...
Thomas A. Edison
February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931
To my mind the old masters are not art their value is in their scarcity.
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, ...
William Tecumseh Sherman
February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891
An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army.
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the ...
Bertolt Brecht
February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
Bertolt Brecht was a German Marxist poet, playwright, and theatre director. A theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made ...
George Jean Nathan
February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958
No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.
George Jean Nathan was an American drama critic and editor. He worked closely with H.L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine The Smart ...
Charles Lamb
February 10, 1775 – December 27, 1834
Let us live for the beauty of our own reality.
Charles Lamb was an English writer and essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, ...
James Dean
February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955
Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.
James Byron Dean was an American actor. He is a cultural icon of the United States and a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as ...
Charles Darwin
February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882
A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
Charles Robert Darwin, FRS was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established ...
Lana Turner
February 8, 1921 – June 29, 1995
It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to work with them.
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner was an American film and television actress. Discovered and signed to a film contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at ...
Harold MacMillan
February 10, 1894 – December 29, 1986
I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC, FRS was a British Conservative politician and statesman who served as the Prime ...
Eva Gabor
February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995
I'm a workaholic. Before long I'm traveling on my nervous energy alone. This is incredibly exhausting.
Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born American socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on the 1965 to 1971 television sitcom ...
Amy Lowell
February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.
Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 - May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who ...
Omar N. Bradley
February 12, 1893 – April 8, 1981
Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.
Omar Nelson "Brad" Bradley was a United States Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the ...
Anna Pavlova
February 12, 1881 – January 23, 1931
No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius.
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the ...
Oliver Reed
February 13, 1938 – May 2, 1999
I'm only drinking white wine because I'm on a diet and I don't eat.
Robert Oliver Reed was an English actor. Reed exemplified his macho image in "tough guy" roles. His films include The Trap, Oliver!, Women ...
Robert Burton
February 8, 1577 – January 25, 1640
Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.
Robert Burton was an English scholar at Oxford University, best known for the classic The Anatomy of Melancholy. He was also the incumbent ...
George Ade
February 9, 1866 – May 16, 1944
If it were not for the presents, an elopement would be preferable.
George Ade (February 9, 1866 - May 16, 1944) was an American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright. Ade was born in Kentland, ...
Brendan Behan
February 9, 1923 – March 20, 1964
I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. He was also an ...
Arne Jacobsen
February 11, 1902 – March 24, 1971
Architecture tends to consume everything else, it has become one's entire life.
Arne Emil Jacobsen, Hon. FAIA was a Danish architect and designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural Functionalism as ...
George Meredith
February 12, 1828 – May 18, 1909
A witty woman is a treasure a witty beauty is a power.
George Meredith, OM (12 February 1828 - 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. Meredith was born in ...
Jack Benny
February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974
Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television, and film actor, and violinist. Recognized as a leading American ...
Thomas Malthus
February 14, 1766 – December 29, 1834
Population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years or increases in a geometrical ratio.
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. ...
Jules Verne
February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905
We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the ...
Boris Pasternak
February 10, 1890 – May 30, 1960
At the moment of childbirth, every woman has the same aura of isolation, as though she were abandoned, alone.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's first book of poems, ...
William Allen White
February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944
A little learning is not a dangerous thing to one who does not mistake it for a great deal.
William Allen White was a renowned American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and ...
Lydia M. Child
February 11, 1802 – October 20, 1880
Childhood itself is scarcely more lovely than a cheerful, kindly, sunshiny old age.
Lydia Maria Francis Child, born Lydia Maria Francis, was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, opponent of American ...
Harriet Ann Jacobs
February 11, 1813 – March 7, 1897
There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment.
Harriet Ann Jacobs was an African-American writer who escaped from slavery and became an abolitionist speaker and reformer. Jacobs' single ...
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
February 12, 1884 – February 20, 1980
Dorothy is the only woman in history who has had her menopause in public and made it pay.
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and prominent socialite. She was the oldest child of U.S. President Theodore "T.R." ...
George Papandreou
February 13, 1888 – November 1968
My hope is that we will turn Greece into maybe the most transparent country in the world with everything on the web.
Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of ...
Robert Shea
February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994
Ultimately we may still ask, why can't humans design a perfect society?
Robert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy ...
Anthony Hope
February 9, 1863 – July 8, 1933
I wish you would read a little poetry sometimes. Your ignorance cramps my conversation.
Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope, was an English novelist and playwright. He was a prolific writer, especially of ...
Stella Adler
February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992
Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.
Stella Adler was an American actress and acclaimed acting teacher. She founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the ...
Jimmy Durante
February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980
Why can't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone.
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, New York ...
Joyce Grenfell
February 10, 1910 – November 30, 1979
Happiness is the sublime moment when you get out of your corsets at night.
Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was a British institution and, in her time, one of the country's best loved entertainers, immortalised in roles ...
Georges Simenon
February 13, 1903 – September 4, 1989
One of them, for example, which will probably haunt me more than any other is the problem of communication.
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon ...
Paul Tsongas
February 14, 1941 – January 18, 1997
Journey with me to a true commitment to our environment. Journey with me to the serenity of leaving to our children a planet in equilibrium.
Paul Efthemios Tsongas was a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1979 to 1985. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the ...