May 08

"A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted."

Francis Quarles
(05/08/1592 – 09/08/1644)
English writer ("A Feast for Wormes. Set forth in a Poeme of the History of Jonah")

"The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful."

Edward Gibbon
(05/08/1737 – 01/16/1794)
English historian ("The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire")

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong." *

Charles Wadsworth
(05/08/1814 – 04/01/1882)
US clergy

"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next."

John Stuart Mill
(05/20/1806 – 05/08/1873)
English philosopher, economist ("The Subjection of Women")

"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost."

Gustave Flaubert
(12/12/1821 – 05/08/1880)
French writer ("Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners")

"Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day."

Harry S Truman
(05/08/1884 – 12/26/1972)
US President (33), VP (34)
(was married to Bess Truman)

"Be humble, if thou would'st attain to Wisdom. Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou hast mastered."

Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
(08/12/1831 – 05/08/1891)
Russian writer, mystic ("Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology")

"An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support."

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
(05/08/1895 – 12/09/1979)
US religious guy

"All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely."

Edmund Wilson
(05/08/1895 – 06/12/1972)
US critic ("Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War")
(was married to Mary McCarthy)

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."

Paul Gauguin
(06/07/1848 – 05/08/1903)
French painter ("Tahitian Woman with a Flower")

"Don't get married to an actress, because they're also actresses in bed."

Roberto Rossellini
(05/08/1906 – 06/03/1977)
Italian director ("Rome, Open City")
(was married to Ingrid Bergman; father with her of Isabella Rossellini)

"Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders."

Sloan Wilson
(05/08/1920 – 05/25/2003)
US writer
(Man In The Grey Flannel Suit)

"When you enter a room, you have to kiss his ring. I don't mind, but he has it in his back pocket."

Don Rickles
(05/08/1926 – 04/06/2017)
US comic ("Kelly's Heroes") , on Frank Sinatra

"I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored."

Sir David Attenborough
(08/29/1926 – )
English broadcaster. natural historian ("David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet")
(brother of Richard Attenborough)

"A boxing match is like a cowboy movie. There's got to be good guys and there's got to be bad guys. And that's what people pay for—to see the bad guys get beat."

Sonny Liston
(05/08/1932 – 12/30/1970)
US boxer

"If few can stand a long war without deterioration of soul, none can stand a long peace."

Oswald Spengler
(05/29/1880 – 05/08/1936)
German philosopher ("The Decline of the West")

"Certainly we have bad paintings. We have only the greatest bad paintings." *

Françoise Cachin
(05/08/1936 – 02/05/2011)
French writer and museum director ("Musée d'Orsay")

"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

Robert Adams
(05/08/1937 – )
US photographer ("New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape")

"A career is a series of comebacks."

Rick Nelson
(05/08/1940 – 12/31/1985)
US actor, singer ("Garden Party")

"Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms."

Keith Jarrett
(05/08/1945 – )
US pianist, composer ("Facing You")

"And all writing is creating or spinning dreams for other people so they won't have to bother doing it themselves."

Beth Henley
(05/08/1952 – )
US writer ("Crimes of the Heart")

"The idiot lived in a black and gray world, punctuated by the white lightning of hunger and the flickering of fear. His clothes were old and many-windowed. Here peeped a shinbone, sharp as a cold chisel, and there in the torn coat were ribs like the fingers of a fist. He was tall and flat. His eyes were calm and his face was dead."

Theodore Sturgeon
(02/26/1918 – 05/08/1985)
US writer ("More Than Human")

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss."

Robert A. Heinlein
(07/07/1907 – 05/08/1988)
US writer ("Stranger in a Strange Land")

"Live your life. Live your life. Live your life."

Maurice Sendak
(06/10/1928 – 05/08/2012)
US writer, illustrator ("Where the Wild Things Are")

"Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment."

John Bradshaw
(06/29/1933 – 05/08/2016)
US philosopher