Born/Died today with Pithy Quotes

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"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
Edmund Burke
(01/12/1729 – 07/09/1797)
Irish statesman 

"It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe."
Zachary Taylor
(11/24/1784 – 07/09/1850)
US President (12) (see all US Presidents) 

"I had a veritable mania for finishing whatever I began, which often got me into difficulties. On one occasion I started to read the works of Voltaire when I learned, to my dismay, that there were close on one hundred large volumes in small print which that monster had written while drinking seventy-two cups of black coffee per diem. It had to be done, but when I laid aside the last book I was very glad, and said, 'Never more!'"
Nikola Tesla
(07/09 (or 07/10)/1856 – 01/07/1943)
Serbian-US inventor 

"Every now and then we discover in the seething mass of humanity round us a person who does not seem to need anybody else, and the contrast with ourselves is stinging."
Ernest Dimnet
(07/09/1866 – ??/??/1954)
French religious guy 

"Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light."
Dorothy Thompson
(07/09/1894 – 01/30/1961)
US writer 

"After forty a woman has to choose between losing her figure or her face. My advice is to keep your face, and stay sitting down."
Dame Barbara Cartland
(07/09/1901 – 05/21/2000)
English novelist 

"I am not a product of privilege, I am a product of opportunity."
Sir Edward Heath
(07/09/1919 – 07/17/2005)
British Prime Minister (47) (see other British PMs) 

"Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business."
Donald Rumsfeld
(07/09/1932 – )
US executive, politico 

"In the name of motherhood and fatherhood and education and good manners, we threaten and suffocate and bind and ensnare and bribe and trick children into wholesale emulation of our ways."
June Jordan
(07/09/1936 – )
US writer 

"If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed."
David Hockney
(07/09/1937 – )
English artist 

"Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more."
Benjamin Cardozo
(05/24/1870 – 07/09/1938)
US Supreme Court (see other Supreme Court justices) 

"I'd give Charles Darwin videotapes of 'Geraldo,' 'Beavis and Butt-head' and 'The McLaughlin Group.' I would be interested in seeing if he still believes in evolution."
Dean R. Koontz
(07/09/1945 – )
US writer , on what gift he'd like to present to another writer, living or dead 

"Fear of losing is what makes competitors so great. Show me a gracious loser and I'll show you a permanent loser."
O. J. Simpson
(07/09/1947 – )
US football player, actor, murderer 

"If you can feel like a good man in your 40s, you can feel like a better man in your 50s, a Superman in your 60s, and maybe a Spider-Man in your 70s."
Tom Hanks
(07/09/1956 – )
US actor (married to Rita Wilson; father of Colin Hanks) 

"Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit; to become delightful, happiness must be tainted with poison."
Georges Bataille
(09/16/1897 – 07/09/1962)
French writer 

"F*** yeah, man! I'm a rock star girl!"
Courtney Love
(07/09/1964 – )
US singer (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins) and recurring train wreck (was married to Kurt Cobain; also see Billy Corgan, D'Arcy Wretzky, James Iha, Melissa auf der Maur, and Jimmy Chamberlain) 

"I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."
Earl Warren
(03/19/1891 – 07/09/1974)
US Supreme Court (see other Supreme Court justices) 

"We weren't afraid of success, we were afraid of being punished for it."
Jack White
(07/09/1975 – )
US musician (White Stripes) (married to Karen Elson) 

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."
Loren Eiseley
(09/03/1907 – 07/09/1977)
US writer 

"When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put it down until you get to the end of the row."
Alice Paul
(01/11/1885 – 07/09/1977)
US lawyer, suffragist 

"One learns in life to keep silent and draw one's own confusions."
Cornelia Otis Skinner
(05/30/1901 – 07/09/1979)
US actor, writer 

"Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature."
Dennis Gabor
(06/05/1900 – 07/09/1979)
Hungarian scientist (invented the hologram) 

"The chief cause of problems is solutions."
Eric Sevareid
(11/26/1912 – 07/09/1992)
US telejournalist 

"There is never a deed so foul that something couldn't be said for the guy; that's why there are lawyers."
Melvin Belli
(07/29/1907 – 07/09/1996)
US attorney 

"When you lose your curiosity, you're dead. I don't care if you live to be 117. You're dead."
Rod Steiger
(04/14/1925 – 07/09/2002)
US actor 

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