December 30

"Never praise a sister to a sister in the hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears."

Rudyard Kipling
(12/30/1865 – 01/18/1936)
English writer
("The Jungle Book")

"Astronomy teaches the correct use of the sun and the planets."

Stephen Leacock
(12/30/1869 – 03/28/1944)
Canadian writer

"No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace, is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas."

Alfred Emanuel Smith
(12/30/1873 – 10/04/1944)
US Governor (NY)

"'I might go for a walk.' Even to me this sounded a pedestrian thing to do."

L. P. Hartley
(12/30/1895 – 12/13/1972)
English writer

"The sky hides the night behind it, and shelters the people beneath from the horror that lies above."

Paul Bowles
(12/30/1910 – 11/18/1999)
US writer, composer, and traveler

"I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I'm about to get."

Bo Diddley
(12/30/1928 – 06/02/2008)
US singer, songwriter

"You can't get the Monkees back together as a rock'n'roll group. That would be like Raymond Burr opening up a law practice."

Michael Nesmith
(12/30/1942 – )
US singer, songwriter, videographer, White-Out heir (Monkees, First National Band)

"A hero is one who does what he can."

Romain Rolland
(01/29/1866 – 12/30/1944)
French writer
("Jean-Christophe")

"The Monkees are like the mafia. You're in for life. Nobody gets out."

Davy Jones
(12/30/1945 – 02/29/2012)
English actor, singer, dancer (Monkees)

"As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag."

Patti Smith
(12/30/1946 – )
US singer, songwriter, poet (relationship with Sam Shepard)

"Knowledge keeps no better than fish."

Alfred North Whitehead
(02/15/1861 – 12/30/1947)
English mathematician, philosopher

"Aren't the artists brave to go out and paint a sea as rough as that? I don't see how he kept his canvas dry."

Ruth Draper
(12/02/1884 – 12/30/1956)
English monologuist

"If God had intended for breasts to be seen, He wouldn't have created large woolen pullovers."

Tracey Ullman
(12/30/1959 – )
English singer, actor

"Newspapermen ask dumb questions. They look up at the sun and ask if it is shining."

Sonny Liston
(05/08/1932 – 12/30/1970)
US boxer

"Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps."

Tiger Woods
(12/30/1975 – )
US golfer (was married to Elin Nordegren)

"What's wrong with sweetness and light? It's been around quite awhile."

Richard Rodgers
(06/28/1902 – 12/30/1979)
US composer (songwriting partner with Oscar Hammerstein)

"Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?"

Eliza Dushku
(12/30/1980 – )
US actor

"Just because I don't do bad things doesn't mean I don't have bad thoughts."

Kristin Kreuk
(12/30/1982 – )
Canadian actor

"Yes, Warner Bros."

Julius Epstein
(08/22/1909 – 12/30/2000)
US screenwriter , on being asked if he'd ever belonged to a subversive organization

"Writing is manual labor of the mind: a job, like laying pipe."

John Gregory Dunne
(05/25/1932 – 12/30/2003)
US writer (was married to Joan Didion)

"It's like having a gangrenous arm. The only thing you can do is amputate it. Obviously you're gonna miss the arm, but if you don't cut it off you'll die."

Artie Shaw
(05/23/1910 – 12/30/2004)
US bandleader (was married to Evelyn Keyes, Kathleen Winsor, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, and four others) , on leaving fame behind in 1954

"If you want to execute me, I'll bring my own f890ing rope."

Saddam Hussein
(04/28/1937 – 12/30/2006)
Iraqi despot

"For my second and third pictures I won Academy Awards. Nothing worse could have happened to me."

Luise Rainer
(01/12/1910 – 12/30/2014)
German actor (was married to Clifford Odets)