"Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example." Duc Francois de la Rochefoucald
(09/15/1613 – 03/17/1680)
French writer

"Things were first made, then words." Sir Thomas Overbury
(06/18/1581 – 09/15/1613)
English writer

William Howard Taft: "I have been talking for a quarter of an hour, but there is so much noise that I can hardly hear myself talk."
Crowd member: "That's all right, you're not missing anything."
(09/15/1857 – 03/08/1930)
US President (27) (see all US Presidents)

Friend: "That drink is slow poison."
Robert Benchley: "So who's in a hurry?"
(09/15/1889 – 11/21/1945)
US writer

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness—to save oneself trouble." Agatha Christie
(09/15/1890 – 01/12/1976)
English writer

"Goodbye, Mr. Zanuck; it certainly has been a pleasure working at Sixteenth Century Fox." Jean Renoir
(09/15/1894 – 02/12/1979)
French filmmaker (son of Pierre Auguste)

"Don't be a blueprint. Be an original." Roy Acuff
(09/15/1903 – 11/23/1992)
US singer

"That youthful sparkle in his eyes is caused by his contact lenses, which he keeps highly polished." Sheilah Graham
(09/15/1904 – 11/17/1988)
US writer , on Ronald Reagan

"I would stand on the floor, and they would bring this arm down and cinch it around my waist, then pull me up in the air. Every time I moved, one of the fingers would loosen, so it would look like I was trying to get away. Actually, I was trying not to slip through his hand." Fay Wray
(09/15/1907 – 08/08/2004)
US actor

"I'm proud and grateful I was Blondie, She was dumb and shrewish sometimes, but she was real and sympathetic and warm, a real woman, a human being. And that's how I tried to play her." Penny Singleton
(09/15/1909 – 11/12/2003)
US actor ("Blondie")

"You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree." John Mitchell
(09/15/1913 – 11/09/1988)
US Secretary of State (was married to Martha Mitchell)

"We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we're in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past." Thomas Wolfe
(10/03/1900 – 09/15/1938)
US writer

"You've got to take Chances in life." Nelson Minter
(09/15/1957 – 12/03/1993)
US friend and schoolmate (his son is named Chance)

"Sometimes it can happen that you see everything in terms of music. It's like a fixation. You can't help it. I get that way every time I'm trying to work something out. But it's bad if you can't pull out of it. Nothing should be that dominating. If it is, it is perverted." Bill Evans
(08/16/1929 – 09/15/1980)
US pianist

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat." Beverley Nichols
(09/09/1898 – 09/15/1983)
English writer (died near his birthday)

"I think the greatest curse of American society has been the idea of an easy millennialism—that some new drug, or the next election, or the latest in social engineering will solve everything." Robert Penn Warren
(04/24/1905 – 09/15/1989)
US writer

"Have you ever thought that war is a madhouse and that everyone in the war is a patient?" Oriana Falacci
(06/29/1930 – 09/15/2006)
Italian journalist