December 23

"The Americans are the first people whom heaven has favoured with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing forms of government under which they should live."

John Jay
(12/23/1745 – 05/17/1829)
US politician, founding father, Supreme Court justice

"Population, when unchecked, increases in geometrical progression of such a nature as to double itself every twenty-five years."

Thomas Malthus
(02/13/1766 – 12/23/1834)
English economist ("An Essay on the Principle of Population")
(image courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library)

"The people must grant a hearing to the best poets they have; else they will never have better."

Harriet Monroe
(12/23/1860 – 09/26/1936)
US poet ("Dance of the Seasons")

"Women are early taught that to appear to yield is the only way to govern."

Sarah Moore Grimké
(11/26/1792 – 12/23/1873)
US abolitionist, suffragist ("Letters on the Equality of Sexes and the Condition of Women")
(sister of Angelina Grimké Weld)

"O'er the rugged mountain's brow,
Clara threw the twins she nursed
and remarked, 'I wonder now
which will reach the bottom first?'"

Harry Graham
(12/23/1874 – 10/30/1936)
English writer ("Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes")

"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
(12/23/1896 – 07/26/1957)
Italian writer ("The Leopard")

"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can."

Yousuf Karsh
(12/23/1908 – 07/13/2002)
Armenian-Turkish-Canadian photographer ("The Roaring Lion")

"It is curious how incest, impotence, nymphomania, religious mania, and real estate speculation can be so dull."

Richard Findlater
(12/23/1908 – ??/??/1985)
English writer ("Comic Cuts: A Bedside Sampler Of Censorship In Action") , on one of Lillian Hellman's books

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?"

Harry Shearer
(12/23/1943 – )
US actor, musician (SNL; Spinal Tap) ("The Simpsons")

"Do nerds never sleep?"

Joan Severance
(12/23/1958 – )
US actor ("See No Evil, Hear No Evil")

"True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes."

Edward F. Halifax
(04/16/1881 – 12/23/1959)
English statesman

"I think celebrities suck."

Eddie Vedder
(12/23/1964 – )
US singer (Pearl Jam) ("Jeremy")

"You want something by Bach? Which one, Johann Sebastian or Jacques Offen?"

Victor Borge
(01/03/1909 – 12/23/2000)
Danish entertainer ("Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2")

"The name of my condition is Cartilage Hair Hypoplasia, but you can just call me Billy."

Billy Barty
(10/25/1924 – 12/23/2000)
US actor

"You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz."

Oscar Peterson
(08/15/1925 – 12/23/2007)
Canadian pianist, composer ("C Jam Blues")