Born this week
Monday August 10th, 2026
Herbert Hoover
August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964
About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States. Hoover, born to a Quaker family, was a professional mining engineer. He ...
John Dryden
August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700
Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating ...
Walter Scott
August 15, 1771 – September 21, 1832
Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet. Scott was the first English-language author ...
Alfred Hitchcock
August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980
Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was an English film director and producer. Often nicknamed "The Master of Suspense", he pioneered many ...
Jeremy Taylor
August 15, 1613 – August 13, 1667
A celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity.
Jeremy Taylor was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is ...
Edna Ferber
August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968
Living the past is a dull and lonely business looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer ...
Izaak Walton
August 9, 1593 – December 15, 1683
I have laid aside business, and gone a'fishing.
Izaak Walton was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies that have ...
Jean Piaget
August 9, 1896 – September 16, 1980
I have always detested any departure from reality, an attitude which I relate to my mother's poor mental health.
Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of ...
Felix Adler
August 13, 1851 – April 24, 1933
For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith.
Felix Adler was a German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, popular lecturer, religious leader and social ...
Karl Liebknecht
August 13, 1871 – January 15, 1919
But Socialism, alone, can bring self-determination of their peoples.
Karl Liebknecht was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He ...
Ben Hogan
August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997
As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.
William Ben Hogan was an American professional golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game. Born ...
Alex Haley
August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992
In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.
Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley was an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American ...
Robert Southey
August 12, 1774 – March 21, 1843
No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth.
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to ...
Anna Julia Cooper
August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964
The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class-it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was an American author, educator, speaker and one of the most prominent African-American scholars in United ...
Walter Lang
August 10, 1896 – February 7, 1972
In Christ the original image of God is restored, by faith in this world and by sight in the world to come.
Walter Lang was an American film director.
H. P. Blavatsky
August 12, 1831 – May 8, 1891
The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, born in Yekaterinoslav, formerly as Helena von Hahn, was a Russian philosopher, and occultist. In 1875, ...
John Derek
August 12, 1926 – May 22, 1998
I think love and beauty are what life is all about.
John Derek was an American actor, director and photographer. He appeared in such films as Knock on Any Door, All the King's Men, and Rogues ...
Hans Urs von Balthasar
August 12, 1905 – June 26, 1988
We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it.
Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who was to be created a cardinal of the Catholic Church but died before ...
Mary Roberts Rinehart
August 12, 1876 – September 22, 1958
I never saw a lawyer yet who would admit he was making money.
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 ...
Pierre Schaeffer
August 14, 1910 – August 19, 1995
Sound is the vocabulary of nature.
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician. His innovative work in ...
Sri Aurobindo
August 15, 1872 – December 5, 1950
Hidden nature is secret God.
Sri Aurobindo, born Aurobindo Ghose, was an Indian nationalist, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for ...