Born this week
Sunday January 11th, 2026
Benjamin Franklin
January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790
At twenty years of age the will reigns at thirty, the wit and at forty, the judgment.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 1790) was an inventor, publisher. scientist, and statesman, who is known as one of the Founding Fathers of the ...
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968
The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. King, a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on ...
William James
January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910
It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.
William James was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a psychology ...
Edmund Burke
January 12, 1729 – July 9, 1797
The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman born in Dublin; author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who, after moving to England, ...
Albert Schweitzer
January 14, 1875 – September 4, 1965
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
Albert Schweitzer, OM was a German—and later French—theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary in Africa, ...
Moliere
January 15, 1622 – February 17, 1673
A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest ...
Alexander Hamilton
January 11, 1757 – July 12, 1804
Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.
Alexander Hamilton was a founding father of the United States, chief staff aide to General George Washington, one of the most influential ...
Swami Vivekananda
January 12, 1863 – July 4, 1902
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.
Swami Vivekananda, born Narendra Nath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk and chief disciple of the 19th-century saint Ramakrishna. He was a ...
Ethel Merman
January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984
I wouldn't change one thing about my professional life, and I make it a point not to dwell on my mistakes.
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her belting voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called ...
Franz Grillparzer
January 15, 1791 – January 21, 1872
Although your knowledge is weak and small, you need not be silent: since you cannot be judges be at least witnesses.
Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (15 January 1791 - 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who is chiefly known for his dramas. He also wrote ...
Joe E. Lewis
January 12, 1902 – June 4, 1971
I told my doctor I get very tired when I go on a diet, so he gave me pep pills. Know what happened? I ate faster.
Joe E. Lewis (January 12, 1902 - June 4, 1971), born Joseph Klewan in New York City, was an American comedian and singer. In 1927, Lewis ...
Pedro Calderon de la Barca
January 17, 1600 – May 25, 1681
For all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño, usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca, was a ...
Abraham Joshua Heschel
January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972
Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th ...
Aldo Leopold
January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of ...
Vittorio Alfieri
January 16, 1749 – October 8, 1803
Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.
Count Vittorio Alfieri was an Italian dramatist and poet, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy."
Constantin Stanislavski
January 17, 1863 – August 7, 1938
Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.
Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski was a Russian actor and theatre director. The Stanislavski system has had a pervasive influence, ...
Jack London
January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of ...
Horatio Alger
January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899
No period of my life has been one of such unmixed happiness as the four years which have been spent within college walls.
Horatio Alger, Jr. was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their ...
Anatoli Boukreev
January 16, 1958 – December 25, 1997
I respect Everest very much.
Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev Russian: Анато́лий Никола́евич Букре́ев was an ethnic-Russian Kazakhstani ...
Laura Riding
January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991
Poetry brings all possible experience to the same degree: a degree in the consciousness beyond which the consciousness itself cannot go.
Laura (Riding) Jackson (January 16, 1901 - September 2, 1991) was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer. She ...
Robert W. Service
January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958
No man can be a failure if he thinks he's a success If he thinks he is a winner, then he is.
Robert William Service was a British-Canadian poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". He is best known for his ...
Anne Bronte
January 17, 1820 – May 28, 1849
A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.
Anne BrontÄ was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the BrontÄ literary family. The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman ...
Arnold Rothstein
January 17, 1882 – November 4, 1928
Don't go away. I don't want to be alone. I can't stand being alone.
Arnold Rothstein, nicknamed "the Brain", was a Jewish-American racketeer, businessman and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish mob in ...