Born this week
Sunday February 22nd, 2026
Victor Hugo
February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885
Forty is the old age of youth fifty the youth of old age.
Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known ...
Michel de Montaigne
February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592
Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was one of the most influential philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a ...
George Washington
February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
George Washington was the first President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American ...
Arthur Schopenhauer
February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher best known for his book, The World as Will and Representation, in which he claimed that our ...
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882
For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and ...
James Russell Lowell
February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New ...
Peter De Vries
February 27, 1910 – September 28, 1993
Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.
Peter De Vries was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as ...
John Steinbeck
February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five ...
Buffalo Bill
February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917
But the love of adventure was in father's blood.
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was an American scout, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory, in Le Claire but ...
Lawrence Durrell
February 27, 1912 – November 7, 1990
Old age is an insult. It's like being smacked.
Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain ...
George William Curtis
February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892
Anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of certain income can indulge.
George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 - August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker, born in Providence, Rhode Island, of ...
Edna St. Vincent Millay
February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950
Beauty is whatever gives joy.
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to ...
Theodore Sturgeon
February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985
Writing is a communication.
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction and horror writer and critic. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database credits him with ...
Henry Reed
February 22, 1914 – December 8, 1986
Dreams have always expanded our understanding of reality by challenging our boundaries of the real, of the possible.
Henry Reed (22 February 1914 - 8 December 1986) was a British poet, translator, radio dramatist and journalist. He was born in Birmingham ...
Samuel Pepys
February 23, 1633 – May 26, 1703
Mighty proud I am that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends.
Samuel Pepys PRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a ...
Robert Baden-Powell
February 22, 1857 – January 8, 1941
The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM GCMG GCVO KCB, also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a ...
W. E. B. Du Bois
February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963
Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.
William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and ...
Marian Anderson
February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993
When you stop having dreams and ideals - well, you might as well stop altogether.
Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth ...
David Sarnoff
February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971
We cannot banish dangers, but we can banish fears. We must not demean life by standing in awe of death.
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career he led the Radio ...
Ben Hecht
February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964
Love is a hole in the heart.
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he ...
Linus Pauling
February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994
The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists ...
Rosalia de Castro
February 24, 1837 – July 15, 1885
Happiness, I do not know where to turn to discover you on earth, in the air or the sky yet I know you exist and are no futile dream.
María Rosalía Rita de Castro, was a Galician romanticist writer and poet. Writing in the Galician language, after the Séculos Escuros, ...
Samuel Lover
February 24, 1797 – July 6, 1868
Come live in my heart, and pay no rent.
Samuel Lover was an Anglo-Irish songwriter, composer, novelist, and a painter of portraits, chiefly miniatures. He was the grandfather of ...
Anthony Burgess
February 25, 1917 – November 22, 1993
Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, FRSL—who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess—was an English writer and composer. From relatively ...
John Foster Dulles
February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959
Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a ...
Jackie Gleason
February 26, 1916 – June 24, 1987
The second day of a diet is always easier than the first. By the second day you're off it.
John Herbert “Jackie” Gleason was an American comedian, actor, and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, ...
James Payn
February 28, 1830 – March 25, 1898
In England, literary pretence is more universal than elsewhere from our method of education.
James Payn (born 28 February 1830 near Maidenhead, Berkshire, died 25 March 1898 in Maida Vale, London), was an English novelist. Payn's ...
Ernest Renan
February 28, 1823 – October 2, 1892
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
Joseph Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native ...