October 31

"To divide a cube into two other cubes, a fourth power or in general any power whatever into two powers of the same denomination above the second is impossible, and I have assuredly found an admirable proof of this, but the margin is too narrow to contain it."

Pierre de Fermat
(circa 10/31/1607 – 01/12/1665)
French mathematician , notes in the margin of his copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica

"Mulberry Garden, now the only place of refreshment about the town for persons of the best quality to be exceedingly cheated at."

John Evelyn
(10/31/1620 – 02/27/1706)
English writer ("Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions")

"The roaring of the wind is my wife and the stars through the window pane are my children."

John Keats
(10/31/1795 – 02/23/1821)
English writer ("Ode to a Nightingale")

"It is time for dead languages to be quiet."

Natalie Clifford Barney
(10/31/1876 – 02/02/1972)
US writer ("Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes")

"We live in the present, we dream of the future, and we learn eternal truths from the past."

Chiang Kai-Shek
(10/31/1887 – 04/05/1975)
Chinese statesman

"In reality, it is more fruitful to wound than to kill. While the dead man lies still, counting only one man less, the wounded man is a progressive drain upon his side."

B. H. Liddell Hart
(10/31/1895 – 01/29/1970)
English military historian ("The Real War, 1914-1918")

"It wouldn't do in my profession to let anything escape you, not even a glass of bitter."

Dan Leno
(12/20/1860 – 10/31/1904)
English entertainer

"Look, I'm not an intellectual—I just take pictures."

Helmut Newton
(10/31/1920 – 01/23/2004)
German-Australian photographer

"I've been married to one marxist and one fascist, and neither one would take the garbage out."

Lee Grant
(10/31/1925 – )
US actor

"It is needless to say that women make the most patient as well as the most dangerous pickpockets."

Harry Houdini
(03/24/1874 – 10/31/1926)
Hungarian-born US magician

"Americans will put up with anything, provided it doesn't block traffic."

Dan Rather
(10/31/1931 – )
US telejournalist

"It would be very discouraging if somewhere down the line you could ask a computer if the Riemann hypothesis is correct and it said, `Yes, it is true, but you won't be able to understand the proof.'"

Ronald Graham
(10/31/1935 – 07/06/2020)
US mathematician

"Belfast is like an ugly child—you love it the most."

Stephen Rea
(10/31/1946 – )
Irish actor

"Me and George and Billy Martin are two of a kind."

Mickey Rivers
(10/31/1948 – )
US baseball player (Texas Rangers)

"Deafness has left me acutely aware of both the duplicity that language is capable of and the many expressions the body cannot hide."

Terry Galloway
(10/31/1950 – )
US performance artist

"You don't pay an actor to act. An actor will do that for free because we love to act. You pay an actor to wait."

John Candy
(10/31/1950 – 03/04/1994)
Canadian actor ("The Second City")

"Once the Invisible Hand has taken all the historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity—y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode, and high-speed pizza delivery."

Neal Stephenson
(10/31/1959 – )
US writer

"In case it is one of mine." *

Augustus Edwin John
(01/04/1878 – 10/31/1961)
Welsh artist , patting the head of a child in Chelsea as he passed by

"I joined a band to hit things."

Larry Mullen, Jr.
(10/31/1961 – )
Irish drummer (U2)

"What I don't like are pompous, pretentious movies."

Peter Jackson
(10/31/1961 – )
New Zealand director

"The real reason I decided on show business was to avoid a day job."

Rob Schneider
(10/31/1963 – )
US comic, actor (SNL)

"It's got lots of installation."

Mike Smith
(10/31/1963 – )
US baseball pitcher , on his new coat

"If you live long enough, lots of nice things happen."

George Halas
(02/02/1895 – 10/31/1983)
US football coach

"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition."

Indira Gandhi
(11/19/1917 – 10/31/1984)
Indian politician
(daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru)

"Realism is a bad word. In a sense everything is realistic. I see no line between the imaginary and the real."

Federico Fellini
(01/20/1920 – 10/31/1993)
Italian filmmaker ("8 1/2")

"I would rather quit while I was ahead. There's no need in overstaying your welcome."

River Phoenix
(08/23/1970 – 10/31/1993)
US actor
(brother of Joaquin Phoenix)

"The older you are, the freer you are, as long as you last."

Studs Terkel
(03/16/1912 – 10/31/2008)
US writer ("The Good War")

"I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him."

Sir Sean Connery
(08/25/1930 – 10/31/2020)
Scottish actor ("The Rock")