December 07

"No sane man will dance."

Cicero
(01/03/0106 BC – 12/07/0043 BC)
Roman writer ("De Oratore")

"Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience."

Johan Huizinga
(12/07/1872 – 02/01/1945)
Dutch historian ("The Autumn of the Middle Ages")

"Where there is great love there are always miracles."

Willa Cather
(12/07/1873 – 04/24/1947)
US writer ("One of Ours")

"The tragedy of life is not that man loses, but that he almost wins."

Heywood C. Broun
(12/07/1888 – 12/18/1939)
US writer ("Christians Only: A Study in Prejudice")
(father of Heywood Hale Broun)

"It is a tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know—the less a man knows, the more sure it is that he knows everything."

Joyce Cary
(12/07/1888 – 03/29/1957)
English writer ("The Horse's Mouth")

"A statesman is a successful politician who is dead."

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

"Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck."

Eli Wallach
(12/07/1915 – 06/24/2014)
US actor ("The Magnificent Seven")

"In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running, if you stand still, they will swallow you."

Victor Kiam
(12/07/1926 – 05/27/2001)
US sports team owner (New England Patriots)

"The notion 'grammatical' cannot be identified with 'meaningful' or 'significant' in any semantic sense. Sentences (1) and (2) are equally nonsensical, but only the former is grammatical.
(1) Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
(2) Furiously sleep ideas green colourless."

Noam Chomsky
(12/07/1928 – )
US educator

"What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be."

Ellen Burstyn
(12/07/1932 – )
US actor

"I am a greedy, selfish bastard. I want the fact that I existed to mean something."

Harry Chapin
(12/07/1942 – 07/16/1981)
US singer, songwriter ("Cat's in the Cradle")

"An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less."

Nicholas Murray Butler
(04/02/1862 – 12/07/1947)
US educator

"I've seldom seen a horny player walk into a bar and not let out exactly what he did for a living."

Johnny Bench
(12/07/1947 – )
US baseball player

"Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends."

Tom Waits
(12/07/1949 – )
US singer, songwriter

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody—somewhere—was practicing more than me."

Larry Bird
(12/07/1956 – )
US basketball player, coach

"I see my work like Picasso. He signed off on his work. I signed off on my work. I work hard during the week. I'm just trying to have fun."

Terrell Owens
(12/07/1973 – )
US football player , signed a football in the end zone after making a touchdown

"I do borrow from other writers, shamelessly! I can only say in my defense, like the woman brought before the judge on a charge of kleptomania, 'I do steal, but, your Honor, only from the very best stores.'"

Thornton Wilder
(04/17/1897 – 12/07/1975)
US writer ("The Bridge of San Luis Rey")

"I believe that every English poet should read the English classics, master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them, travel abroad, experience the horror of sordid passion and—if he is lucky enough—know the love of an honest woman."

Robert Graves
(07/24/1895 – 12/07/1985)
English writer ("I, Claudius")

"Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."

Potter Stewart
(01/23/1915 – 12/07/1985)
US Supreme Court justice

"I feel positively like a Beatle."

Joan Bennett
(02/27/1910 – 12/07/1990)
US actor ("The Woman in the Window") , on the success of the soap "Dark Shadows"
(sister of Constance Bennett)

"Society has never barred women from bread-winning roles, but only from economic roles that are profitable and respectable."

Jeane Kirkpatrick
(11/19/1926 – 12/07/2006)
US diplomat

"At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results."

Chuck Yeager
(02/13/1923 – 12/07/2020)
US test pilot