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"I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race."

Thomas Love Peacock
(10/18/1785 – 01/23/1866)
English writer ("Nightmare Abbey")

"If there's one thing for which I admire you, it's your original discovery of the Ten Commandments."

Thomas B. Reed
(10/18/1839 – 12/07/1902)
US Rep (ME) , to Teddy Roosevelt

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

Henri Bergson
(10/18/1859 – 01/04/1941)
French philosopher ("Time and Free Will")

"Die? My dear Doctor, that's the last thing I shall do!"

Lord Palmerston
(10/20/1784 – 10/18/1865)
English statesman , last words
(died near his birthday)

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

Charles Babbage
(12/26/1791 – 10/18/1871)
English mathematician ("Reflections on the Decline of Science and Some of Its Causes")

Singer: "You know, my dear, I insured my voice for fifty thousand dollars."
Miriam Hopkins: "That's wonderful. And what did you do with the money?"
(10/18/1902 – 10/09/1972)
US actor ("Becky Sharp")

"I got to be one of the guys so much, I used to have the girls waiting for me..."

Anita O'Day
(10/18/1919 – 11/23/2006)
US singer ("Sweet Georgia Brown & Tea for Two") , on dressing like the rest of the band onstage
(same dates as Klaus Kinski)

"It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there."

Pierre Trudeau
(10/18/1919 – 09/28/2000)
Canadian Prime Minister (15) , on Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
(was married to Margaret; father, with her, of Justin Trudeau)

"I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at the same time. That's the kind of customers we need!"

Jesse Helms
(10/18/1921 – 07/04/2008)
US senator (NC) , at a dinner to promote the state's tobacco industry (Jesse's the older boy on the left)

"One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real."

Klaus Kinski
(10/18/1926 – 11/23/1991)
German actor ("Nosferatu the Vampyre")
(father of Nastassja Kinski; same dates as Anita O'Day)

"Don't let the same dog bite you twice."

Chuck Berry
(10/18/1926 – 03/18/2017)
US singer, songwriter, guitarist ("Johnny B. Goode")

"For me the sexiest woman on the screen ever was Joan Blondell."

George C. Scott
(10/18/1927 – 09/22/1999)
US actor ("The Flim-Flam Man")
(was married to Colleen Dewhurst, Trish Van Devere; father with Dewhurst of Campbell Scott)

"Results! Why man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

Thomas Alva Edison
(02/11/1847 – 10/18/1931)
US scientist/inventor

"I'm just your wild working musician."

Laura Nyro
(10/18/1947 – 04/08/1997)
US singer, songwriter ("Flim Flam Man")

"Creation is everything you do. Make something."

Ntozake Shange
(10/18/1948 – 10/27/2018)
US writer ("For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf")

"Sometimes I want to clean up my desk and go out and say, respect me, I'm a respectable grown-up, and other times I just want to jump into a paper bag and shake and bake myself to death."

Wendy Wasserstein
(10/18/1950 – 01/30/2006)
US playwright ("The Heidi Chronicles")

"It's sad to think that we've gotten to this that we actually have to think about how to go about finding a man. But what's even sadder is that some men make you feel guilty for looking."

Terry McMillan
(10/18/1951 – )
US writer ("Waiting to Exhale")

"The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else."

Martina Navratilova
(10/18/1956 – )
Czech tennis player

"I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel."

Elizabeth Arden
(12/31/1881 – 10/18/1966)
US cosmetician

"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities."

Walt Kelly
(08/25/1913 – 10/18/1973)
US cartoonist ("Pogo")

"How sad would be November if we had no knowledge of the spring."

Edwin Way Teale
(06/02/1899 – 10/18/1980)
US writer, naturalist ("The American Seasons")

"I've liked lots of people 'til I went on a picnic jaunt with them."

Bess Truman
(02/13/1885 – 10/18/1982)
US first lady (40)
(was married to Harry S Truman)

"I like the character of Charity because she's so hopeful. She's never bitter, and plenty of things happen to her that could make her bitter. She always thinks tomorrow's going to be beautiful. And someday it will be."

Gwen Verdon
(01/13/1925 – 10/18/2000)
US actor, dancer ("Damn Yankees")
(was married to Bob Fosse)

"Television is more interesting than people. If it were not, we would have people standing in the corners of our rooms."

Alan Coren
(06/27/1938 – 10/18/2007)
English writer ("The Dog It Was That Died")

"There are two types of coaches. Them that have just been fired and them that are going to be fired."

Bum Phillips
(09/29/1923 – 10/18/2013)
US football coach

"Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision."

Colin Powell
(04/05/1937 – 10/18/2021)
US military, Secretary of State

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