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"'Tis not where we lie, but whence we fell;
The loss of heaven's the greatest pain in hell."

Pedro Calderon de la Barca
(01/17/1600 – 05/25/1681)
Spanish writer ("The Mayor of Zalamea")

"Kill no more pigeons than you can eat."

Benjamin Franklin
(01/17/1706 – 04/17/1790)
US writer, Founding Father ("Poor Richard's Almanack")

"I would not send a poor girl into the world... ignorant of the snares that beset her path; nor would I watch and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power or the will to watch and guard herself."

Anne Brontė
(01/17/1820 – 05/28/1849)
English writer ("The Tenant of Wildfell Hall")
(sister of Charlotte and Emily Brontė)

"When they circumcised Herbert Samuel, they threw away the wrong bit."

David Lloyd-George
(01/17/1863 – 03/26/1945)
British PM (36)

"We never make sport of religion, politics, race, or mothers. A mother never gets hit with a custard pie. Mothers-in-law—yes. But mothers—never."

Mack Sennett
(01/17/1880 – 11/05/1960)
Canadian filmmaker ("The Timid Young Man")

"I hear it's the Hebrew in Heaven, sir. Spanish is seldom spoken."

Ronald Firbank
(01/17/1886 – 05/21/1926)
English writer ("Valmouth")

"In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person."

George Bancroft
(10/03/1800 – 01/17/1891)
US historian, statesman ("History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent")

"In avoiding the appearance of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyments."

Rutherford B. Hayes
(10/04/1822 – 01/17/1893)
US President (19)

"I don't even know what street Canada is on."

Al Capone
(01/17/1899 – 01/25/1947)
US entrepreneur

"This is a do-it-yourself test for paranoia: you know you've got it when you can't think of anything that's your fault."

Robert M. Hutchins
(01/17/1899 – 05/17/1977)
US educator ("Zuckerkandl!")

"The cat is the only non-gregarious domestic animal. It is retained by its extraordinary adhesion to the comforts of the house in which it is reared."

Sir Francis Galton
(02/16/1822 – 01/17/1911)
English scientist ("The Art of Travel")

"All creatures must learn to coexist. That’s why the brown bear and the field mouse can share their lives in harmony. Or course, they can’t mate or the mice would explode."

Betty White
(01/17/1922 – 12/31/2021)
US actor ("The Golden Girls")

"I am the original Material Girl."

Eartha Kitt
(01/17/1927 – 12/25/2008)
US singer, actor ("C'est Si Bon")

"My voice is for hire. My endorsement is not for hire. I will do a voice-over, but I cannot endorse without making a different kind of commitment. My politics are very personal and subjective."

James Earl Jones
(01/17/1931 – )
US actor ("The Great White Hope")

"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I just beat people up."

Muhammad Ali
(01/17/1942 – 06/03/2016)
US boxer

"I didn't think it was going anywhere, which just shows you how wrong you can be... At the time, it seemed like the thing to do."

Mick Taylor
(01/17/1948 – )
English guitarist ("Can't You Hear Me Knocking") , on quitting the Rolling Stones in 1974

"But I'm not trying to be funny. I just want to play with their heads."

Andy Kaufman
(01/17/1949 – 05/16/1984)
US comic, actor ("Taxi")
(LTR with Elayne Boosler)

"Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Steve Earle
(01/17/1955 – )
US singer, songwriter ("Copperhead Road")

"We worked so hard we almost stopped enjoying it."

Susanna Hoffs
(01/17/1959 – )
US musician, songwriter (Bangles) ("In Your Room")

"Until Ace Ventura, no actor had considered talking through his ass."

Jim Carrey
(01/17/1962 – )
Canadian comic, actor ("Man on the Moon")
(was engaged to Renee Zellweger; dated Linda Ronstadt, Jenny McCarthy)

"You think education is something to be done when all else fails?"

T. H. White
(05/29/1906 – 01/17/1964)
English writer ("The Once and Future King")

"I want you to understand that every scar that you have is a reminder not just that you got hurt, but that you survived."

Michelle Obama
(01/17/1964 – )
US First Lady (51) ("Becoming")
(married to Barack Obama)

"I wrote about people who liked fake fireplaces in their parlor, who thought a brass horse with a clock embedded in its flank was 'wonderful.'"

Betty Smith
(12/15/1896 – 01/17/1972)
US writer ("A Tree Grows in Brooklyn")

"It's an addiction. I love clothes. I like to go down Melrose and look in all the windows and I go to different flea markets. I have lots of costumes. You never know when you're going to have to dress up like a milkmaid from the 1600s."

Zooey Deschanel
(01/17/1980 – )
US actor ("New Girl")

"I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people.'"

Barbara Jordan
(02/21/1936 – 01/17/1996)
US Senator and Representative (TX)

"Should I get married? Should I be good?
Astound the girl next door with my velvet suit and faustus hood?"

Gregory Corso
(03/26/1930 – 01/17/2001)
US writer ("Marriage")

"I really wanted to be a dancer, but I ended up as an actress and I got to perform next to some of the greatest actors of our time."

Virginia Mayo
(11/30/1920 – 01/17/2005)
US actor ("White Heat")

"I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves."

Bobby Fischer
(03/09/1943 – 01/17/2008)
US-Icelandic chess grand master

"They glanced at one another like tigers taking measure of a menacing new rival."

Erich Segal
(06/16/1937 – 01/17/2010)
US writer ("Love Story")

"Sometimes breaking the rules is extending the rules."

Mary Oliver
(09/10/1935 – 01/17/2019)
US poet ("Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver")

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