October 02

"Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason."

Samuel Adams
(09/27/1722 – 10/02/1803)
US patriot, brewer
(died near his birthday)

"Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value."

Marechal Ferdinand Foch
(10/02/1851 – 03/20/1929)
French general ("Des Principes de la Guerre (On the Principles of War)")

Reporter: "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
Mahatma Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."
(10/02/1869 – 01/30/1948)
Indian political, religious leader ("The Story of My Experiments with Truth")

"They will get it straight one day at the Sorbonne.
We shall return at twilight from the lecture
pleased that the irrational is rational."

Wallace Stevens
(10/02/1879 – 08/02/1955)
US writer ("The Man with the Blue Guitar")

"She got her good looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon."

Groucho Marx
(10/02/1890 – 08/19/1977)
US comic actor (Marx Brothers) ("The Big Store")

"O Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul."

Ernest Renan
(02/28/1823 – 10/02/1892)
French philosopher, historian ("What Is a Nation?")
(same dates as Peter Medawar)

"His hilarity was like a scream from a crevasse."

Graham Greene
(10/02/1904 – 04/03/1991)
English writer ("The Power and the Glory")

"I sometimes think that Thomas Cook should be numbered among the secular saints. He took travel from the privileged and gave it to the people."

Robert Runcie
(10/02/1921 – 07/11/2000)
English archbishop

"(Travel seems) not just a way of having a good time, but something that every self-respecting citizen ought to undertake, like a high-fiber diet, say, or a deodorant."

Jan Morris
(10/02/1926 – 11/20/2020)
Welsh writer ("Last Letters from Hav")

"If a swamp alligator could talk, it would sound like Tennessee Williams."

Rex Reed
(10/02/1938 – )
US critic

"If you are going to America, bring food."

Annie Leibovitz
(10/02/1949 – )
US photographer (notable photos)
(was partner of Susan Sontag)

"Rock'n'roll is trying to convince girls to pay money to be near you."

Richard Hell
(10/02/1949 – )
US singer, bassist (Television, Voidoids) ("Blank Generation")

"When you're as rich as I am, you don't have to be political."

Sting
(10/02/1951 – )
English bassist, singer (Police) ("Been Down So Long")

"The 49ers were so badly flattened that they didn't fly back to San Francisco, they were faxed."

Scott Ostler
(10/02/???? – )
US columnist , on a 1993 football playoff loss

"Miracles had to be paid for; only calamity was free."

Lisa St Aubin de Terán
(10/02/1951 – )
English writer ("Keepers of the House")

"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."

Marcel Duchamp
(07/28/1887 – 10/02/1968)
French surrealist ("Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2")

"It's definitely going to change my image. Rock stations are calling me now because I'm naked."

Tiffany
(10/02/1971 – )
US singer ("I Think We're Alone Now") , on posing nude for Playboy

"I have always respected everyone's religion. As I say, there is only one God and a lot of confused people."

Hazel Scott
(06/11/1920 – 10/02/1981)
Trinidadi-US pianist, singer ("Black and White are Beautiful")

"I had to overcome the name Rock. If I'd been as hip then as I am now, I would have never consented to be named Rock."

Rock Hudson
(11/17/1925 – 10/02/1985)
US actor ("Giant")

"I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not."

Sir Peter B. Medawar
(02/28/1915 – 10/02/1987)
Brazil-born British zoologist ("Memoirs of a Thinking Radish: An Autobiography")
(same dates as Ernest Renan)

"I found out life's hard but it ain't impossible."

August Wilson
(04/27/1945 – 10/02/2005)
US playwright ("Jitney")

"If you're not getting older, you're dead."

Tom Petty
(10/20/1950 – 10/02/2017)
US singer, songwriter ("Refugee")

"A great catch is like watching girls go by—the last one you see is always the prettiest."

Bob Gibson
(11/09/1935 – 10/02/2020)
US baseball player