September 16

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish."

Anne Bradstreet
(03/20/1612 – 09/16/1672)
English-US writer ("The Tenth Muse, lately Sprung up in America")

"There is no such thing as an inevitable war. If war comes it will be from failure of human wisdom."

Andrew Bonar Law
(09/16/1858 – 10/30/1923)
British PM (37)

"Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother's womb."

Jean Arp
(09/16/1886 – 06/07/1966)
French artist

"I have got the Arctic lure and will certainly go North again."

Louise Arner Boyd
(09/16/1887 – 09/14/1972)
US explorer
(died near her birthday)

"A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill if you don't eat it."

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
(09/16/1893 – 10/22/1986)
Hungarian biochemist (discovered vitamin C)

"Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder."

Dr. Laurence J. Peter
(09/16/1919 – 01/12/1990)
Canadian pop psychologist, writer ("The Peter Principle")

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."

Lauren Bacall
(09/16/1924 – 08/12/2014)
US actor
(was married to Humphrey Bogart, Jason Robards)

"I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow."

B. B. King
(09/16/1925 – 05/14/2015)
US blues guitarist, singer ("The Thrill Is Gone")

"Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost."

Robert H. Schuller
(09/16/1926 – 04/02/2015)
US televangelist

"The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine."

James Jeans
(09/11/1877 – 09/16/1946)
English physicist
(died near his birthday)

"Everyone said that if you want to be a real actor, go to New York. If you want to sell out, go to LA. And I thought—I want to sell out!"

Jennifer Tilly
(09/16/1958 – )
US actor
(sister of Meg Tilly)

"I used to get painful crushes on really unavailable guys."

Molly Shannon
(09/16/1964 – )
US comic actor (SNL)

"In a recent Valentine's Day posting on her fan website, Britney Spears says that—oh, who cares?"

Amy Poehler
(09/16/1971 – )
US comic, writer (SNL)
(was married to Will Arnett)

"I would like to be Maria, but there is Las Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity."

Maria Callas
(12/02/1923 – 09/16/1977)
US diva (in the original sense of the word)

"I was a mod prince. It was the very beginnings of sequin rock and I had lots of clothes because my mother made them."

Marc "T Rex" Bolan
(09/30/1947 – 09/16/1977)
English singer

"I didn't know the full dimensions of forever, but I knew it was longer than waiting for Christmas to come."

Richard Brautigan
(01/30/1935 – 09/16/1984)
US writer ("Trout Fishing in America")

"The curious fascination in this job is the illusion that either you are being useful or you could be—and that's so tempting."

Millicent Fenwick
(02/25/1910 – 09/16/1992)
US fashion editor, representative (NJ), diplomat

"The space age was upon us. Everyone was thinking about rockets and wondering if maybe we would find people up there. I still wonder if we will. People (heard the song) and imagined some kind of beings."

Sheb Wooley
(04/10/1921 – 09/16/2003)
US actor, singer, songwriter ("The Purple People Eater," "Wilhelm Scream") , on "Flying Purple People Eater"

"I have never understood. I will never understand."

Virginia Hamilton Adair
(02/28/1913 – 09/16/2004)
US writer ("Ants on the Melon") , on her husband's suicide

"If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic."

Edward Albee
(03/12/1928 – 09/16/2016)
US playwright ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?")