Blathery

Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Born this week

William Shakespeare

April 26, 1564April 23, 1616

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the ...

Josh Billings

April 21, 1818October 14, 1885

I think when the full horror of being fifty hits you, you should stay home and have a good cry.

Josh Billings was the pen name of 19th-century American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw. Although his reputation has not endured so well with ...

Marcus Aurelius

April 26, 121 CEMarch 17, 180 CE

Anger cannot be dishonest.

Marcus Aurelius was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was the ...

David Hume

April 26, 1711August 25, 1776

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, diplomat and essayist known especially for his philosophical empiricism and ...

Vladimir Lenin

April 22, 1870January 21, 1924

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as head of ...

John Muir

April 21, 1838December 24, 1914

Take a course in good water and air and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone no harm will befall you.

John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, ...

Immanuel Kant

April 22, 1724February 12, 1804

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is widely considered to be a central figure of modern philosophy. He argued that fundamental ...

Vladimir Nabokov

April 22, 1899July 2, 1977

A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Russian-American novelist. Nabokov's first nine novels were in Russian. He then rose to international ...

Anthony Trollope

April 24, 1815December 6, 1882

A fellow oughtn't to let his family property go to pieces.

Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

April 26, 1889April 29, 1951

The human body is the best picture of the human soul.

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the ...

James Anthony Froude

April 23, 1818October 20, 1894

We enter the world alone, we leave the world alone.

James Anthony Froude was an English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of Fraser's Magazine. From his upbringing amidst the ...

Harvey S. Firestone

April 20, 1898June 1973

I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.

Harvey Samuel Firestone, Jr. was an American businessman, and chairman of the board of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. The son of ...

John Cameron

April 21, 1922March 16, 2005

I am now almost certain that we need more radiation for better health.

John Cameron, born in northern Wisconsin in 1922, was raised on a farm and experienced firsthand the Depression years. In 1937 his parents ...

Rollo May

April 21, 1909October 22, 1994

Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.

Rollo Reece May was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book Love and Will. He is often associated with ...

Philip James Bailey

April 22, 1816November 6, 1902

The sole equality on earth is death.

Philip James Bailey was an English Spasmodic poet, best known as the author of Festus.

Charlotte Bronte

April 21, 1816March 31, 1855

I feel monotony and death to be almost the same.

Charlotte BrontÄ was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three BrontÄ sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels ...

Henry Fielding

April 22, 1707October 8, 1754

It is not death, but dying, which is terrible.

Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel ...

Lester B. Pearson

April 23, 1897December 27, 1972

The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.

Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, soldier, and ...

Oliver Cromwell

April 25, 1599September 3, 1658

Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry.

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. ...

David Brainerd

April 20, 1718October 9, 1747

I have a secret thought from some things I have observed, that God may perhaps design you for some singular service in the world.

David Brainerd was an American missionary to the Native Americans who had a particularly fruitful ministry among the Delaware Indians of ...

Ellen Glasgow

April 22, 1873November 21, 1945

It is lovely, when I forget all birthdays, including my own, to find that somebody remembers me.

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 - November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the ...

Madame de Stael

April 22, 1766July 14, 1817

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.

Anne Louise Germaine de StaÄl-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de StaÄl, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime ...

A. C. Benson

April 24, 1862June 17, 1925

When you get to my age life seems little more than one long march to and from the lavatory.

Arthur Christopher Benson (24 April 1862 - 17 June 1925) was an English essayist, poet, and author and the 28th Master of Magdalene ...

John James Audubon

April 26, 1785January 27, 1851

To have been torn from the study would have been as death my time was entirely occupied with art.

John James Audubon, born Jean-Jacques Audubon, was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive ...

Edward R. Murrow

April 25, 1908April 27, 1965

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

Edward R. Murrow KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World ...

Thomas Reid

April 26, 1710October 7, 1796

The rules of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.

Thomas Reid FRSE was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, a contemporary of David Hume as well as "Hume's earliest and fiercest ...

Adolf Hitler

April 20, 1889April 30, 1945

Strength lies not in defence but in attack.

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and ...

Robert Wilson Lynd

April 20, 1879October 6, 1949

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.

Robert Wilson Lynd was an Irish writer, an urbane literary essayist and strong Irish nationalist.

Pietro Aretino

April 20, 1492October 21, 1556

I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship.

Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist, and blackmailer, who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and ...

James Martineau

April 21, 1805January 11, 1900

Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere.

Dr. James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of ...

Max Planck

April 23, 1858October 4, 1947

It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, FRS was a German theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in ...

Roy Orbison

April 23, 1936December 6, 1988

Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight.

Roy Kelton Orbison, also known by the nickname the Big O, was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his trademark sunglasses, ...

Robert Penn Warren

April 24, 1905September 15, 1989

How do poems grow? They grow out of your life.

Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter ...

Ella Fitzgerald

April 25, 1917June 15, 1996

The only thing better than singing is more singing.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz vocalist with a vocal range spanning three octaves. Often referred to as the "First Lady of ...

Douglas Sirk

April 26, 1897January 14, 1987

In the 19th century, you had bourgeois art without politics - an almost frozen idea of what beauty is.

Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; April 26, 1897 - January 14, 1987) was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in ...