Born Today- Famous People with Pithy Quotes

"Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, and yet he is willing to make gods by dozens."
Michel de Montaigne
(02/28/1553 – 09/13/1592)
French writer

"Joy is a subtle elf; I think one's happiest when he forgets himself." Cyril Tourneur
(??/??/1575 – 02/28/1626)
English writer

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Berthold Auerbach
(02/28/1812 – 02/08/1882)
German writer

"The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with facts for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life." Ernest Renan
(02/28/1823 – 10/02/1892)
French philosopher, historian

"Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated." Alphonse de Lamartine
(10/21/1790 – 02/28/1869)
French writer

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the right. " Douglas McGarel Hogg, Lord Hailsham
(02/28/1872 – 08/16/1950)
English politician

"There are four departments. There's the executive, and the legislative, and the judicial, and—the Bill of Rights." Kenneth Wherry
(02/28/1892 – 11/29/1951)
US Senator (NE)

"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." Ben Hecht
(02/28/1893 – 04/18/1964)
US writer

"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas." Linus Pauling
(02/28/1901 – 08/19/1994)
US chemist

"It's hard for me to say what I think about it because it's kind of embarrassing. I think the stuff is very good - technically very good ... But I think it's the fact that I'm 83 and living here in one room and that I'm blind and I'm also kind of gamy. I think they gambled on this book, and I think part of it is this old nut, a character." Virginia Hamilton Adair
(02/28/1913 – 09/16/2004)
US writer , on being published for the first time at 83

"He has the best possible actors. If you have a disagreement with them, you can always use them to wash your car." Zero Mostel
(02/28/1915 – 09/08/1977)
US actor , on Jim Henson's muppets

"If a scientist were to cut his ear off, no one would take it as evidence of a heightened sensibility." Sir Peter B. Medawar
(02/28/1915 – 10/02/1987)
Brazil-born British zoologist (same birth and death dates as Ernest Renan) , on van Gogh

"She felt in italics and thought in capitals." Henry James
(04/15/1843 – 02/28/1916)
US writer

"As a result of half a century of Soviet rule people have been weaned from a belief in human kindness." Svetlana Alliluyeva
(02/28/1926 – )
Russian political family (daughter of Josef Stalin)

"He used to be fairly indecisive, but now he's not so certain." Peter Alliss
(02/28/1931 – )
English golfer

"My idea of gambling was walking through Central Park, whistling show tunes." Tommy Tune
(02/28/1939 – )
US dancer

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." Mario Andretti
(02/28/1940 – )
US race driver

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good." Alice May Brock
(02/28/1941 – )
US restauranteur

"We piss anywhere, man." Brian Jones
(02/28/1943 – 07/03/1969)
English musician (Rolling Stones)

"When I grew up in the '60s, your hair had to be straight and you had to be skinny and have no boobs, and it was like not my era." Bernadette Peters
(02/28/1948 – )
US actor

"The pressure to being a comedian is being funny, but I've given that up, so there is no pressure whatsoever." Gilbert Gottfried
(02/28/1955 – )
US comic actor (SNL)

"When I see these guys write all this macho stuff I want to smash their heads." John Turturro
(02/28/1957 – )
Italian-US actor

"Truth's like a fire, and will burn through and be seen." Maxwell Anderson
(12/15/1888 – 02/28/1959)
US playwright

"Unattractive people are more obsessed with looks." Rae Dawn Chong
(02/28/1961 – )
US actor

"Of necessity, we made the discovery that it is easier to turn poets into business journalists than to turn bookkeepers into writers." Henry R. Luce
(04/03/1898 – 02/28/1967)
US publisher (was married to Clare Boothe Luce) , on Time magazine

"I hate pretty-looking boys. I'd rather have a guy with a potbelly than one who's in the gym all the time and watches what he eats." Ali Larter
(02/28/1976 – )
US actor

"I would rather take hellebore than spend a conversation with a good, little man." Edward Dahlberg
(07/22/1900 – 02/28/1977)
US writer

"Rockefeller made his money in oil, which he discovered at the bottom of wells. Oil was considered crude in those days, but so was Rockefeller. Now both are considered quite refined." Richard Armour
(07/15/1906 – 02/28/1989)
US humorist

"A best seller was a book which somehow sold well simply because it was selling well." Dr. Daniel J. Boorstin
(10/01/1914 – 02/28/2004)
US historian

"Golf is a game in which you yell 'fore,' shoot six, and write down five." Paul Harvey
(09/04/1918 – 02/28/2009)
US radio journalist