Born this week
Sunday April 12th, 2026
Thomas Jefferson
April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the ...
Leonardo da Vinci
April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, ...
Anatole France
April 16, 1844 – October 12, 1924
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful ...
Clarence Darrow
April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was best known for defending ...
Thornton Wilder
April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975
The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose.
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and ...
Charlie Chaplin
April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977
Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English actor, comedian, and filmmaker who rose to fame in the silent era. Chaplin became ...
Henry James
April 15, 1843 – February 28, 1916
It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance... and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.
Henry James, OM was an American writer who spent most of his writing career in Britain. He is regarded as one of the key figures of ...
George Henry Lewes
April 18, 1817 – November 30, 1878
Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
George Henry Lewes was an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre. He became part of the mid-Victorian ferment of ideas ...
Joseph Barber Lightfoot
April 13, 1828 – December 21, 1889
I will not be discouraged by failure I will not be elated by success.
Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 - 21 December 1889) was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham, usually known as J.B. Lightfoot. ...
Arnold J. Toynbee
April 14, 1889 – October 22, 1975
A life which does not go into action is a failure.
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian, philosopher of history, research professor of International History at the London School ...
Corrie Ten Boom
April 15, 1892 – April 15, 1983
Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.
Cornelia "Corrie" ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who, along with her father and other family members, helped many Jews escape the Nazi ...
Robert Delaunay
April 12, 1885 – October 25, 1941
Art in Nature is rhythmic and has a horror of constraint.
Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of ...
B. R. Ambedkar
April 14, 1891 – December 6, 1956
I like the religion that teaches liberty, equality and fraternity.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the ...
Nikita Khrushchev
April 15, 1894 – September 11, 1971
Don't you have a machine that puts food into the mouth and pushes it down?
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a Russian politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary ...
Samuel Beckett
April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989
No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found.
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult ...
Charles Henry Parkhurst
April 17, 1842 – September 8, 1933
Faith is a kind of winged intellect. The great workmen of history have been men who believed like giants.
Charles Henry Parkhurst was an American clergyman and social reformer, born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Although scholarly and reserved, ...
John Millington Synge
April 16, 1871 – March 24, 1909
The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously enough, on the direction of the wind.
Edmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in ...
Imogen Cunningham
April 12, 1883 – June 24, 1976
I became kind of a drop-out in science after I came back to America. I wanted to photograph.
Imogen Cunningham (April 12, 1883 - June 24, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial ...
James Branch Cabell
April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958
Patriotism is the religion of hell.
James Branch Cabell was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including ...
Anne Sullivan
April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936
We all like stories that make us cry. It's so nice to feel sad when you've nothing in particular to feel sad about.
Johanna "Anne" Mansfield Sullivan Macy, better known as Anne Sullivan, was an American teacher, best known for being the instructor and ...
John Lothrop Motley
April 15, 1814 – May 29, 1877
A good lawyer is a bad Christian.
John Lothrop Motley (Dorchester, near Boston, Massachusetts, April 15, 1814 - near Dorchester, England, May 29, 1877) was an American ...
Wilbur Wright
April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912
It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.
Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912) was the older of the two Wright brothers (the other being Orville), two Americans credited ...
J. P. Morgan
April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913
A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.
John Pierpont "J.P." Morgan was an American financier, banker, philanthropist and art collector who dominated corporate finance and ...
Benjamin Tucker
April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939
Such security is equal liberty. But it is not necessarily equality in the use of the earth.
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker was a proponent, in the 19th century, of American individualist anarchism, which he called "unterrified ...