December 20

"I find the medicine worse than the malady."

John Fletcher
(12/20/1579 – 08/29/1625)
English writer ("The Faithful Shepherdess")

"Ah! What is man? Wherefore does he why? Whence did he whence? Whither is he withering?"

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

"Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!"

Ann Taylor
(06/30/1782 – 12/20/1866)
English writer

"Considering the company I keep in this place, that is hardly surprising."

Sir Robert Menzies
(12/20/1894 – 05/15/1978)
Australian PM , on his "superiority complex" and the Australian Parliament

"The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt."

Max Lerner
(12/20/1902 – 06/05/1992)
US political columnist ("The Unfinished Country")

"A happy childhood can't be cured. Mine'll hang around my neck like a rainbow, that's all, instead of a noose."

Hortense Calisher
(12/20/1911 – 01/13/2009)
US writer ("In the Absence of Angels")

"No, I don't understand my husband's theory of relativity, but I know my husband, and I know he can be trusted." *

Elsa Einstein
(01/18/1876 – 12/20/1936)
German physicist's spouse and cousin
(married to Albert Einstein)

"I dislike organized games, swimming pools, fashionable resorts, night clubs, music in restaurants, and political manifestoes; I enjoy driving from coast to coast, good food and drink, a few friends, dogs, the theatre, long walks, music, and free conversation."

James Hilton
(09/09/1900 – 12/20/1954)
English writer ("Goodbye, Mr. Chips")

"Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had."

Billy Bragg
(12/20/1957 – )
English musician ("Levi Stubbs' Tears")

"God heard the embattled nations sing and shout
'Gott strafe England' and 'God save the King!'
God this, God that, and God the other thing—
'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out!'"

Sir John Collings Squire
(04/02/1884 – 12/20/1958)
English journalist ("If It Had Happened Otherwise")

"All the mistakes I ever made were when I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'."

Moss Hart
(10/24/1904 – 12/20/1961)
US writer ("A Star Is Born")
(same birth and death dates as Denise Levertov and Adrian Mitchell)

"She always accuses me of just listening to depressing music all day."

Chris Robinson
(12/20/1966 – )
US singer (Black Crowes) ("She Talks to Angels") , on Kate Hudson
(was married to Kate Hudson)

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts."

John Steinbeck
(02/27/1902 – 12/20/1968)
US writer ("The Grapes of Wrath")

"It isn't true that you live only once. You only die once. You live lots of times, if you know how."

Bobby Darin
(05/14/1936 – 12/20/1973)
US singer ("Beyond the Sea")

"We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement."

Richard J. Daley
(05/15/1902 – 12/20/1976)
US Mayor (Chicago)
(father of Richard M. Daley Jr.)

"Sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me."

Arthur Rubinstein
(01/28/1887 – 12/20/1982)
Polish-Israeli-US pianist ("Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (excerpt)")

"Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions."

Mignon McLaughlin
(06/06/1913 – 12/20/1983)
US writer ("The Complete Neurotic's Notebook")

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing."

W. Edwards Deming
(10/14/1900 – 12/20/1993)
US educator ("Some Theory of Sampling")

"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked."

Dean Rusk
(02/09/1909 – 12/20/1994)
US secretary of state , on Castro and the Cuban missile crisis

"A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror."

Ken S. Keyes, Jr.
(01/19/1921 – 12/20/1995)
US writer ("The Hundredth Monkey")

"But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."

Dr. Carl Sagan
(11/09/1934 – 12/20/1996)
US scientist, writer ("Cosmos")

"In city, in suburb, in forest, no way to stretch out the arms—so if you would grow, go straight up or deep down."

Denise Levertov
(10/24/1923 – 12/20/1997)
English-born US writer ("The Double Image")
(same birth and death dates as Moss Hart and Adrian Mitchell)

"I know a lie when I hear one."

Adrian Mitchell
(10/24/1932 – 12/20/2008)
English writer ("If You See Me Comin'")
(same birth and death dates as Moss Hart and Denise Levertov)

"I think they should take everyone who works for The National Enquirer and the Star, and everyone who works for Us Weekly, and put them all to work looking for terrorists. I think they would find the terrorists. All of them. It would be genius!"

Brittany Murphy
(11/10/1977 – 12/20/2009)
US actor ("Don't Say a Word")