May 19

"He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it."

James Boswell
(10/29/1740 – 05/19/1795)
Scottish biographer ("The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.")

"Music is not written in red, white, and blue. It is written in the heart's blood of the composer."

Dame Nellie Melba
(05/19/1861 – 02/23/1931)
Australian opera singer

"All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests."

Nathaniel Hawthorne
(07/04/1804 – 05/19/1864)
US writer ("The Scarlet Letter: A Romance")

"To my embarrassment, I was born in bed with a lady."

Wilson Mizner
(05/19/1876 – 04/03/1933)
US writer ("The Deep Purple")

"One reason I don't drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time."

Lady Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor
(05/19/1879 – 05/02/1964)
US zillionaire; first woman to sit in Parliament

"Peace at home, peace in the world."

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
(05/19/1881 – 11/10/1938)
Turkish military and political leader

"Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right."

William E. Gladstone
(12/29/1809 – 05/19/1898)
British PM (30) ("On Books and the Housing of Them")

"I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, politics, or trade—or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to women than to men, but wish we had more of it everywhere."

Belva Lockwood
(10/24/1830 – 05/19/1917)
US attorney

"History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals."

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

"All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by... religion, whatever else it has done, has provided one of the main ways of meeting this abiding need."

Harvey Cox
(05/19/1929 – )
US theologian ("The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective")

"The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely."

Lorraine Hansberry
(05/19/1930 – 01/12/1965)
US writer ("A Raisin in the Sun")

"A friend of mine went to the Alpine Club, and said my larger one (portrait) was a conscious effort by you to show how long contact with camels had affected my face! But I explained that it wasn't my face which had been in contact with camels."

T. E. Lawrence
(08/16/1888 – 05/19/1935)
Welsh writer ("Seven Pillars of Wisdom") , to Augustus John

"[A successful parent is one] who raises a child who grows up and is able to pay for his or her own psychoanalysis."

Nora Ephron
(05/19/1941 – 06/26/2012)
US writer ("When Harry Met Sally...")
(was married to Carl Bernstein, Dan Greenburg)

"But, apart from that, there was very little on underneath the suit."

Peter Mayhew
(05/19/1944 – 04/30/2019)
English actor (Star Wars)

"I smash guitars because I like them."

Peter Townshend
(05/19/1945 – )
English singer, songwriter, guitarist (the Who) ("Won't Get Fooled Again")

"Mystics always hope that science will someday overtake them."

Booth Tarkington
(07/29/1869 – 05/19/1946)
US writer ("The Magnificent Ambersons")

"I once told this writer a story about how I met the guys in an elevator and found out we all had the same last name, so we decided to form a band."

Joey Ramone
(05/19/1951 – 04/15/2001)
US singer (Ramones) ("Sheena Is A Punk Rocker")

"I did advertise for a holiday companion—capable widow, no sense of humour, some knowledge of haemorrhoids preferred—not a reply."

Victoria Wood
(05/19/1953 – 04/20/2016)
English comic ("Pam Song")

"I mean, in the eternal scope of things, how much does this matter?"

Eric Show
(05/19/1956 – 03/16/1994)
US baseball player , on giving up Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit

"If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t really trying."

Coleman Hawkins
(11/21/1904 – 05/19/1969)
US saxophonist ("Lover Man")

"Uncle Carl Laemmle
Has a very large faemmle."

Ogden Nash
(08/19/1902 – 05/19/1971)
US poet ("I'm a Stranger Here Myself") , on nepotism in Hollywood

"Friendly attacks should begin with faint praise, but be careful not to use adjectives or phrases of which the publisher can make use in advertisements."

Sir John Betjeman
(08/28/1906 – 05/19/1984)
English writer ("New Bats in Old Belfries")

"A kleptomaniac is a person who helps himself because he can't help himself."

Henry Morgan
(03/31/1915 – 05/19/1994)
US humorist

"Sex is a bad thing because it rumples the clothes."

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
(07/28/1929 – 05/19/1994)
US First Lady (42)
(was married to Aristotle Onassis, John F. Kennedy)

"Pilgrims who are looking for a cure are soon looking for a curio."

Morley Safer
(11/08/1931 – 05/19/2016)
US telejournalist ("60 Minutes")