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"When Fortune smiles, I smile to think how quickly she will frown."

Robert Southwell
(??/??/1561 – 02/21/1595)
English writer

"Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it we must direct our lives in such a way as to please the fancy of men, avoiding what they dislike and seeking what is pleasing to them."

Benedict Spinoza
(11/24/1632 – 02/21/1677)
Dutch philosopher ("Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order")

"Ability is sexless."

Cardinal John Newman
(02/21/1801 – 08/11/1890)
English cardinal ("Apologia Pro Vita Sua")

"A very short one."

Jeanne Calment
(02/21/1875 – 08/04/1997)
French supercentenarian, longest recorded human lifespan , on the sort of future a 120-yr-old expects

"The little I know I owe to my ignorance."

Sacha Guitry
(02/21/1885 – 07/24/1957)
French writer ("The New Testament")

"Sometimes it is impossible to deal with her, but most of the time she is very sweet, and if you caress her properly she will sing beautifully."

Andres Segovia
(02/21/1893 – 06/02/1987)
Spanish guitarist , on the guitar

"What I cannot love, I overlook. Is that real friendship?"

Anaïs Nin
(02/21/1903 – 01/14/1977)
French-born US diarist ("Cities of the Interior")
(relationship with Henry Miller)

"If there are any of you at the back who do not hear me, please don't raise your hands because I am also nearsighted."

W. H. Auden
(02/21/1907 – 09/29/1973)
English-US writer ("The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue")

"They nicknamed me the Oomph Girl, and I loathe that nickname! Just being known by a nickname indicates that you're not thought of as a true actress... It's just crap! If you call an actress by her looks or a reaction, then that's all she'll ever be thought of as."

Ann Sheridan
(02/21/1915 – 01/21/1967)
US actor ("The Man Who Came to Dinner")

"Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom."

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
(11/26/1832 – 02/21/1919)
US physician, surgeon, medal of honor recipient ("Unmasked, or the Science of Immorality, To Gentlemen by a Woman Physician and Surgeon")

"I want to be able to make Westerns like Kurosawa makes Westerns."

Sam Peckinpah
(02/21/1925 – 12/28/1984)
US director ("The Wild Bunch")

"I do not participate in any sport with ambulances at the bottom of a hill."

Erma Bombeck
(02/21/1927 – 04/22/1996)
US writer, humorist ("The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank")

"How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it?"

Nina Simone
(02/21/1933 – 04/21/2003)
US singer ("Four Women")

"Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power."

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

"The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things."

Jilly Cooper
(02/21/1937 – )
English writer ("The Rutshire Chronicles")

"Who gets the bird, the hunter or the dog?"

John R. Lewis
(02/21/1940 – 07/17/2020)
US civil rights leader, Representative (GA) ("March")

"Anybody who thinks money will make you happy hasn't got money."

David Geffen
(02/21/1943 – )
US entertainment business magnate (relationship with Cher)

"A critic is someone who never actually goes to the battle, yet who afterwards comes out shooting the wounded."

Tyne Daly
(02/21/1946 – )
US actor

"I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously."

Alan Rickman
(02/21/1946 – 01/14/2016)
English actor ("Die Hard")

"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."

David Foster Wallace
(02/21/1962 – 09/12/2008)
US writer ("Infinite Jest")

"When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?"

Chuck Palahniuk
(02/21/1962 – )
US writer ("Fight Club")

"Early in life I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise."

Malcolm X
(05/19/1925 – 02/21/1965)
US spiritual leader ("The Autobiography of Malcolm X")

"I just accepted them as a great accessory to every outfit."

Jennifer Love Hewitt
(02/21/1979 – )
US actor , on her breasts

"Judging people you don't know for things you don't understand is just really stupid."

Elliot Page
(02/21/1987 – )
Canadian actor ("There's Something in the Water")

"Life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?"

Dame Margot Fonteyn
(05/18/1919 – 02/21/1991)
English dancer ("Swan Lake")

"I've read the last page of the Bible. It's all going to turn out all right."

Billy Graham
(11/07/1918 – 02/21/2018)
US evangelist

"Pop music is aspirin and the blues are vitamins."

Peter Tork
(02/13/1942 – 02/21/2019)
US musician (Monkees)

"When Fred Astaire danced, everything in this world was perfect."

Stanley Donen
(04/13/1924 – 02/21/2019)
US director, choreographer ("Charade")

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