November 23

"Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe."

Alfonso X the Wise
(11/23/1221 – 04/04/1284)
Spanish royalty ("Siete Partidas (Seven-Part Code)")

"In a body [like Congress] where there are more than one hundred talking lawyers, you can make no calculation upon the termination of any debate."

Franklin Pierce
(11/23/1804 – 10/08/1869)
US President (14)

"When I was nine I played the demon king in Cinderella and it launched me on a long and happy life of being a monster."

Boris Karloff
(11/23/1887 – 02/02/1969)
English actor
(married seven times)

"He looked like something that had gotten loose from Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade."

Harpo Marx
(11/23/1888 – 09/28/1964)
US comic actor (Marx Brothers) , on Alexander Woollcott

"Man's many desires are like the small metal coins he carries about in his pocket. The more he has the more they weigh him down."

Sathya Sai Baba
(11/23/1926 – 04/24/2011)
Indian guru

"In curved Einsteinian space we are at all times, technically, looking at the back of our own head."

Guy Davenport
(11/23/1927 – 01/04/2005)
US writer, educator

"From forty to fifty a man is at heart either a stoic or a satyr."

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
(05/24/1855 – 11/23/1934)
English playwright ("The Second Mrs. Tanqueray")

"Getting ideas is like shaving; if you don't do it every day, you're a bum."

Alex Kroll
(11/23/1937 – )
US pro football player, ad executive

"Well, here I am. Your Majesty may begin at once."

Constance Talmadge
(04/19/1898 – 11/23/1973)
US actor ("Intolerance") , to D. W. Griffith
(daughter of Margaret)

"All art is a revolt against man's fate."

André Malraux
(11/03/1901 – 11/23/1976)
French writer

"Some children are spoiled and it is not their fault, it is their parents'."

Roald Dahl
(09/13/1916 – 11/23/1990)
Welsh writer (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
(was married to Patricia Neal)

"I am my own God, my own jury and my own executioner.... Heil Gunther!"

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

"The greatest thing the Democrats have ever done for me was to defeat me for the governor of Tennessee."

Roy Acuff
(09/15/1903 – 11/23/1992)
US singer

"People like controversy because that's what sells."

Miley Cyrus
(11/23/1992 – )
US singer, songwriter
(daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus; was married to Liam Hemsworth)

"It is only when memory is filtered through imagination that the films we make will have real depth."

Louis Malle
(10/30/1932 – 11/23/1995)
French film director
(was married to Candice Bergen)

"Just get up there and let it rip!"

Anita O'Day
(10/18/1919 – 11/23/2006)
US singer , advice on singing
(same dates as Klaus Kinski)

"Barbara Eden is the most beautiful girl in the world."

Larry Hagman
(09/21/1931 – 11/23/2012)
US actor , shown with Barbara Eden
(son of Mary Martin)

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."

Marion Barry, Jr.
(03/06/1936 – 11/23/2014)
US mayor (Washington, DC)

"Youth is so exciting. It'll take over. I don't want to be swept away. I want to be with the taking-over people, right to the end."

Nicolas Roeg
(08/15/1928 – 11/23/2018)
English director

"The art and culture that is New York, communications, finance, all these things help make up New York. The rest of the country should be happy that we are what we are."

David Dinkins
(07/10/1927 – 11/23/2020)
US mayor (NYC)