Born/Died Today with Pithy Quotes

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"A man who has a million dollars is as well off as if he were rich."
John Jacob Astor
(07/17/1763 – 03/29/1848)
US zillionaire 

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Adam Smith
(06/05/1723 – 07/17/1790)
Scottish economist 

"One must choose in life between boredom and suffering."
Germaine de Stael
(04/22/1766 – 07/17/1817)
French writer 

"It's a damn good story. If you have any comments, write them on the back of a check."
Erle Stanley Gardner
(07/17/1889 – 03/11/1970)
US writer , on a manuscript submitted to hard-to-please editors 

"If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves, there wouldn't be enough to go around."
Christina Stead
(07/17/1902 – 03/31/1983)
Australian writer 

Socialite: "Whatever possessed you to be born in a place like Lowell, Massachusetts?"
Whistler: "I wished to be near my mother."
James McNeil Whistler
(07/10/1834 – 07/17/1903)
US artist (died near his birthday)

"Anyone can be a yogi. All you need are a dirty sheet and two broken legs."
Jack Douglas
(07/17/1908 – 01/31/1989)
US comic, writer 

"The four stages of a man are infancy, childhood, adolescence and obsolescence."
Art Linkletter
(07/17/1912 – 05/26/2010)
Canadian humorist 

"Ideas rose in clouds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination."
Henri Poincare
(04/29/1854 – 07/17/1912)
French mathematician 

"His favorite exercise is climbing tall people."
Phyllis Diller
(07/17/1917 – )
US comic , on Mickey Rooney 

"I did a movie with Miss Bankhead in England. One day, she wandered into my dressing room, completely nude. I couldn't help staring, and she said, 'What's the matter, dahling? Haven't you ever seen a blonde before?'"
Donald Sutherland
(07/17/1934 – )
Canadian actor (father of Kiefer) 

"My contributions were many: First clown director, with witty sayings and flashily dressed, now called master of ceremonies."
Jelly Roll Morton
(09/20/1885 – 07/17/1941)
US pianist 

"Beyond its entertainment value, Baywatch has enriched and, in many ways, helped save lives. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to continue with a project which has had such significance for so many."
David Hasselhoff
(07/17/1952 – )
US actor 

"Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen, and I was three."
Billie Holiday
(04/07/1915 – 07/17/1959)
US singer 

"If I met Picasso in the street I would kick him in the pants."
Sir Alfred Munnings
(10/08/1878 – 07/17/1959)
English artist 

"A baseball bat is a wondrous weapon."
Ty Cobb
(12/18/1886 – 07/17/1961)
US baseball player 

"Sometimes I’d think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass."
John Coltrane
(09/23/1926 – 07/17/1967)
US jazz composer, musician 

"Fans, don't fail to miss tomorrow's game."
Dizzy Dean
(01/16/1911 – 07/17/1974)
US baseball player 

"If one is rich and one's a woman, one can be quite misunderstood."
Katharine Graham
(06/16/1917 – 07/17/2001)
US businessperson (Washington Post owner) 

"We may be a small island, but we are not a small people."
Sir Edward Heath
(07/09/1919 – 07/17/2005)
British Prime Minister (47) (see other British PMs) 

"An actor is someone who hates himself so much he has to be someone else."
Mickey Spillane
(03/09/1918 – 07/17/2006)
US writer 

"I do think one of the factors was we were of different sexes."
Walter Cronkite
(11/04/1916 – 07/17/2009)
US telejournalist , on his 63-year marriage to Betsy 

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