November 24

"If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past."

Benedict Spinoza
(11/24/1632 – 02/21/1677)
Dutch philosopher ("Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order")

"I take a simple view of life. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it."

Laurence Sterne
(11/24/1713 – 03/18/1768)
Irish-English writer ("The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman")

"The idea that I should become President seems to me too visionary to require a serious answer. It has never entered my head, nor is it likely to enter the head of any sane person."

Zachary Taylor
(11/24/1784 – 07/09/1850)
US President (12)

"Many people think that virtue consists of severity towards others."

Alphonse Karr
(11/24/1808 – 09/29/1890)
French writer ("Vendredi Soir (Friday Evening)")

William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount, Lord Melbourne, Baron of Kilmore, Baron Melbourne of Melbourne

"Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it."

William Lamb Melbourne
(03/15/1779 – 11/24/1848)
British PM (23)
(was married to Lady Caroline Lamb; involved in scandal with Caroline Sheridan Norton)

"Because it has such a ragged movement. It suggests something like that."

Scott Joplin
(11/24/1868 – 04/01/1917)
US composer ("The Entertainer") , on "Ragtime" music

"The best audience is intelligent, well-educated, and a little drunk."

Alben W. Barkley
(11/24/1877 – 04/30/1956)
US Vice President (35)

"They say the Pharaohs built the pyramids. Do you think one Pharaoh dropped one bead of sweat? We built the pyramids for the Pharaohs and we're building for them yet."

Anna Louise Strong
(11/24/1885 – 03/29/1970)
US writer ("I Change Worlds: the Remaking of an American")

"It is rarely that you see an American writer who is not hopelessly sane."

Margaret Caroline Anderson
(11/24/1886 – 10/19/1973)
US writer ("My Thirty Years' War: An Autobiography")

"When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity."

Dale Carnegie
(11/24/1888 – 11/01/1955)
US writer ("How to Win Friends and Influence People")

"So it can be seen that the trouble with the motion-picture art was (and is) that it is too much an industry; and the trouble with the motion picture industry is that it is too much an art. It is out of this basic contradiction that most of the ills of the form arise."

Garson Kanin
(11/24/1912 – 03/13/1999)
US writer, director, actor ("Adam's Rib")
(brother of Michael Kanin; was married to Ruth Gordon)

"Education costs money, but then so does ignorance."

Sir Claus Moser
(11/24/1922 – 09/04/2015)
German-born English statistician
(Derek Bok agrees)

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."

Danny Ozark
(11/24/1923 – 05/07/2009)
US baseball coach

"Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller are having a row, ostensibly over the plight of New York's mentally retarded, a loose definition of which would include everybody who voted for Kennedy or Rockefeller."

William F. Buckley
(11/24/1925 – 02/27/2008)
US writer ("God and Man at Yale")
(brother of James Buckley)

"America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization."

Georges Clemenceau
(09/28/1841 – 11/24/1929)
French PM

"Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle repair kit."

(Sir) Billy Connolly
(11/24/1942 – )
Scottish comic, actor ("Mrs Brown")

"I have always believed that socially unacceptable men make much better lovers because they are more sensitive."

Candy Darling
(11/24/1944 – 03/21/1974)
US actor ("Women in Revolt")

"Erotica is pornography I am willing to publicly admit I like."

Spider Robinson
(11/24/1948 – )
US writer ("Telempath")

"And if nothing else, I've learned that there are people in life who have a need to sort of bask and reflect in glory or to take credit."

Linda Tripp
(11/24/1949 – 04/08/2020)
US public servant

"July 13, 1954 was the most tragic day of my life. I had lost my beloved Frida forever....Too late now I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida."

Diego Rivera
(12/08/1886 – 11/24/1957)
Mexican artist ("Man at the Crossroads")

"I collect watches because I'm always late, and I need to know exactly how late I'm going to be—in order to come up with a good excuse."

Colin Hanks
(11/24/1977 – )
US actor ("Life in Pieces")
(son of Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks)

"And I'd love to one day be in a position where I could choose a role to showcase my creativity versus just my bra size."

Katherine Heigl
(11/24/1978 – )
US actor ("Grey's Anatomy")

"I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring."

Dodie Smith
(05/03/1896 – 11/24/1990)
English writer ("The Hundred and One Dalmatians")

"I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear."

Freddy Mercury
(09/05/1946 – 11/24/1991)
Tanzanian singer (Queen) ("Killer Queen")

"Manifestly subliterate."

John Simon
(05/12/1925 – 11/24/2019)
Serbian-US critic ("Private Screenings: Views of the Cinema of the Sixties") , on Rex Reed

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."

Clive James
(10/07/1939 – 11/24/2019)
Australian critic ("Unreliable Memoirs")