December 17

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there."

Jalal ud-Din Rumi
(09/30/1207 – 12/17/1273)
Ghurid (now Afghanistan) region mystic and poet

"The finest collection of frames I ever saw."

Sir Humphry Davy
(12/17/1778 – 05/29/1829)
English chemist (discovered laughing gas, bless him) , on the museums of France

"Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive."

Thomas C. Haliburton
(12/17/1796 – 08/27/1865)
Canadian writer

"He never seemed to be doing anything, and yet he did not like to be disturbed at it."

John Greenleaf Whittier
(12/17/1807 – 09/07/1892)
US writer , on Nathaniel Hawthorne

"What I love best about music is the women who listen to it."

Jules-Alfred Hout de Goncourt
(12/17/1830 – 06/20/1870)
French writer (brother of Edmond Hout de Goncourt)

"Ladies, just a little more virginity, if you don't mind."

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
(12/17/1852 – 07/02/1917)
English actor, writer , to actresses brought to play ladies-in-waiting

"I may really say that for a quarter of a century I have kept before me one unflinching aim—to register my own times in terms of my own time, and still more to urge those who are better poets and better prose-writers than myself to have the same aim."

Ford Madox Ford
(12/17/1873 – 06/26/1939)
English writer

"I was not a writer to begin with; I was a listener."

Erskine Caldwell
(12/17/1903 – 04/11/1987)
US writer (was married to Margaret Bourke-White)

"In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting."

Lord Kelvin
(06/26/1824 – 12/17/1907)
Irish scientist

"My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that it is a living death, etc. By the same post I had several letters from anxious relatives, telling me that it was my duty to come home and thus ease my mother's anxiety."

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
(06/09/1836 – 12/17/1917)
English physician, mayor , on becoming a physician

"It's not hard to tell we was poor—when you saw the toilet paper dryin' on the clothesline."

George Lindsey
(12/17/1928 – 05/06/2012)
US comic, actor

"Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care."

William Safire
(12/17/1929 – 09/27/2009)
US writer, grammarian

"I hate advice unless I'm giving it."

Bob Guccione
(12/17/1930 – 10/20/2010)
US magazine editor (Penthouse)

"Oh, great. This is going to be like shooting baskets with Magic Johnson watching."

Bill Pullman
(12/17/1953 – )
US actor , on the prospect of watching "Independence Day" (in which he plays the US President) with US President Bill Clinton

"As I grow older and older
and totter towards the tomb
I find that I care less and less
who goes to bed with whom."

Dorothy L. Sayers
(06/13/1893 – 12/17/1957)
English writer

"If it's a man's world, then I'm glad I'm a girl."

Penelope Houston
(12/17/1958 – )
US singer, songwriter

Jay Leno: "How did you like the birds?"
Milla Jovovich: "Very nice, I felt like wringing their necks."
(12/17/1975 – )
Russian model, actor (was married to Luc Besson)

"Leaving behind books is even more beautiful—there are far too many children."

Marguerite Yourcenar
(06/08/1903 – 12/17/1987)
Belgian-US writer

"The last time I saw anything like this I was playing for Tastee Freeze in the Little League." *

Dave Smith
(01/21/1955 – 12/17/2008)
US pitcher (Astros) , on being behind by 14 runs in the first inning

"My mother told me never explain, never complain. Even as a young actress, I determined I would never give personal interviews, since they made me so uncomfortable."

Jennifer Jones
(03/02/1919 – 12/17/2009)
US actor (was married to Robert Walker, David O. Selznick, and Norton Simon)

"The way I keep in touch with the world is very gingerly, because the world touches too hard."

Captain Beefheart
(01/15/1941 – 12/17/2010)
US musician

"I'll try anything. What are they gonna do, kick me out of show business?"

Penny Marshall
(10/15/1943 – 12/17/2018)
US actor, director, producer (sister of Garry Marshall; was married to Rob Reiner)