Born this week
Sunday July 5th, 2026
Jean Cocteau
July 5, 1889 – October 11, 1963
An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Cocteau is best known for his novel ...
E. B. White
July 11, 1899 – October 1985
Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.
Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White was an American writer. He was a contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a co-author of the English language ...
Marcel Proust
July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922
Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel À la ...
Jean de La Fontaine
July 8, 1621 – April 13, 1695
By the work one knows the workman.
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above ...
Robert A. Heinlein
July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most ...
John D. Rockefeller
July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937
A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.
John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the Standard Oil Company, which ...
Arthur Ashe
July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993
The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.
Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was an American World No. 1 professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles, ranking him among the best ...
Satchel Paige
July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982
Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a ...
John Calvin
July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564
Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development ...
John Quincy Adams
July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
John Quincy Adams was an American statesman who served as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He also served as a ...
Abraham Cahan
July 7, 1860 – August 31, 1951
Be modest, humble, simple. Control your anger.
Abraham "Abe" Cahan (July 7, 1860 - August 31, 1951) was a Lithuanian-born American socialist newspaper editor, novelist, and politician. ...
Arthur Helps
July 10, 1813 – March 7, 1875
Experience is the extract of suffering.
Sir Arthur Helps, KCB, DCL (10 July 1813 - 7 March 1875), English writer and dean of the Privy Council, youngest son of Thomas Helps, a ...
Marc Chagall
July 6, 1887 – March 28, 1985
Great art picks up where nature ends.
Marc Zakharovich Chagall was a Russian-French artist. Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of ...
Frida Kahlo
July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954
I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter who is best known for her self-portraits. Kahlo's life began and ended in Mexico City, in her ...
Aphra Behn
July 10, 1640 – April 16, 1689
Each moment of a happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life.
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration, one of the first English professional female literary writers. Along with ...
Richard King
July 10, 1824 – April 14, 1885
I'm not impressed by someone's degree... I'm impressed by them making movies.
Richard King was a riverboat captain, entrepreneur, and most notably, the founder of the King Ranch in South Texas, which at the time of ...
Gustav Mahler
July 7, 1860 – May 18, 1911
The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born to a Jewish family in the ...
Roger Babson
July 6, 1875 – March 5, 1967
It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.
Roger Ward Babson, remembered today largely for founding Babson College in Massachusetts, was an entrepreneur and business theorist in the ...
John Paul Jones
July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792
If fear is cultivated it will become stronger, if faith is cultivated it will achieve mastery.
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he ...
Margaret Walker
July 6, 1915 – November 30, 1998
The Word of fire burns today On the lips of our prophets in an evil age.
Margaret Walker was an American poet and writer. She was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago. Her notable works ...
Don Herold
July 9, 1889 – June 1966
A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it.
Don Herold (July 9, 1889 - June 1, 1966) was an American humorist, writer, illustrator, and cartoonist who wrote and illustrated many books ...
Dorothy Thompson
July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961
The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld.
Dorothy Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most ...
Mary McLeod Bethune
July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955
Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a private school for African-American ...
Finley Peter Dunne
July 10, 1867 – April 24, 1936
Most vegetarians look so much like the food they eat that they can be classified as cannibals.
Finley Peter Dunne was an American humorist and writer from Chicago. He published Mr. Dooley in Peace and War, a collection of his ...
George Borrow
July 5, 1803 – July 26, 1881
Next to the love of God, the love of country is the best preventive of crime.
George Henry Borrow was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his experiences traveling around Europe. Over the ...
Nelson Rockefeller
July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979
Never forget that the most powerful force on earth is love.
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was an American businessman, philanthropist, public servant, and politician. He served as the 41st Vice ...
Camille Pissarro
July 10, 1830 – November 13, 1903
I began to understand my sensations, to know what I wanted, at around the age of forty - but only vaguely.
Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas. His importance resides in ...