August 29

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing."

Jean-Baptiste Colbert
(08/29/1619 – 09/06/1683)
French statesman

"Drink to-day, and drown all sorrow;
You shall perhaps not do 't to-morrow."

John Fletcher
(12/20/1579 – 08/29/1625)
English writer ("The Faithful Shepherdess")

"Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip."

John Locke
(08/29/1632 – 10/28/1704)
English philosopher ("A Letter Concerning Toleration")

"You may have genius. The contrary is, of course, probable."

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
(08/29/1809 – 10/07/1894)
US writer, scientist, scholar ("The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table") , to an aspiring author
(father of Holmes Jr.)

"We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us."

Maurice Maeterlinck
(08/29/1862 – 05/06/1949)
Belgian writer ("Intruder")

"My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there."

Charles F. Kettering
(08/29/1876 – 11/25/1958)
US inventor

"If I had the choice of educating a boy or a girl, I would educate the girl. If you educate a boy, you educate one, but if you educate a girl, you educate a generation."

Brigham Young
(06/01/1801 – 08/29/1877)
US religious leader

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't recognize you without your crown."

Lady Diana Cooper
(08/29/1892 – 06/16/1986)
English actor, writer ("The Glorious Adventure") , realizing at a party that the woman she was talking to was Queen Elizabeth II
(was married to Duff Cooper)

"A pretty girl is better than a plain one
A leg is better than an arm
A bedroom is better than a living room
An arrival is better that a departure
A birth is better than a death
A chase is better than a chat
A dog is better than a landscape
A kitten is better than a dog
A baby is better than a kitten
A kiss is better than a baby
A pratfall is better than anything."

Preston Sturges
(08/29/1898 – 08/06/1959)
US writer ("The Great McGinty") , golden rules for successful comedy

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."

Ingrid Bergman
(08/29/1915 – 08/29/1982)
US actor ("Casablanca")
(was married to Roberto Rossellini, mother with him of Isabella Rossellini; died on her birthday)

"Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you."

Charlie Parker
(08/29/1920 – 03/12/1955)
US saxophonist, composer ("The Bird")

"Elizabeth Taylor looks like two small boys fighting underneath a mink blanket."

Mr. Blackwell
(08/29/1922 – 10/19/2008)
US critic

"The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television is tremendously important, both in photography, television, and film."

Sir Richard Attenborough
(08/29/1923 – 08/24/2014)
English director ("Gandhi")
(brother of David Attenborough; died near his birthday)

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."

Rev. William A. Spooner
(07/22/1844 – 08/29/1930)
English religious dyslexic

"By the time a film of mine makes it into the theatres, I have a love-hate relationship with it. There is always something I could have done to make it better."

William Friedkin
(08/29/1935 – )
US film director ("The French Connection")
(married to Sherry Lansing; was married to Jeanne Moreau)

"Why am I running for president? Well, my wife, Cindy, says it is because I sustained several severe blows to the head in prison camp."

John McCain
(08/29/1936 – 08/25/2018)
US Senator, Representative (AZ), presidential nominee (2008), and Navy pilot
(died near his birthday)

"I was changing a light bulb over Groucho Marx's bed, so I took my shoes off, got on his bed and changed the bulb. When I got off the bed he said: 'That's the best acting you've ever done.'"

Elliott Gould
(08/29/1938 – )
US actor ("M*A*S*H")
(was married to Barbra Streisand)

"If I wasn't a musician, I would be a serial killer."

GG Allin
(08/29/1956 – 06/28/1993)
US performer ("Carmelita")

"I was a veteran before I was a teenager."

Michael Jackson
(08/29/1958 – 06/25/2009)
US singer, dancer, songwriter ("Maybe Tomorrow")
(was married to Lisa Marie Presley)

"You don't get ulcers from what you eat. You get them from what's eating you."

Vicki Baum
(01/24/1888 – 08/29/1960)
Austrian-US writer ("Grand Hotel")

"There was a professor named Sprie
Who lectured each Tuesday at three
If nobody came
He talked just the same
And observed his own feedback with glee"

Wendell Johnson
(04/16/1906 – 08/29/1965)
US speech therapist

"The roads of life are strewn with the wreckage of run-down and half-finished loves."

Ralph W. Sockman
(10/01/1889 – 08/29/1970)
US religious person ("Now to Live!")

"He had a genius for backing into the limelight."

Lowell Thomas
(04/06/1892 – 08/29/1981)
US writer, explorer ("Adventures in Afghanistan for Boys") , on T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."

Ingrid Bergman
(08/29/1915 – 08/29/1982)
US actor ("Gaslight")
(was married to Roberto Rossellini, mother with him of Isabella Rossellini; died on her birthday)

"I think half of this belongs to a horse somewhere out in the valley."

Lee Marvin
(02/19/1924 – 08/29/1987)
US actor ("Cat Ballou") , on his Oscar for "Cat Ballou"

"Words are potent weapons for all causes, good or bad."

Manly Hall
(03/18/1901 – 08/29/1990)
Canadian writer ("The Secret Teaching of All Ages")

"I'm not so funny. Gilda was funny. I'm funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while. But she was funny. She spent more time worrying about being liked than anything else."

Gene Wilder
(06/11/1933 – 08/29/2016)
US actor ("Young Frankenstein")
(was married to Gilda Radner)