Blathery

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

Born this week

Mahatma Gandhi

October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil ...

Groucho Marx

October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977

I must confess, I was born at a very early age.

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film and television star. He was known as a master of quick wit and widely ...

Henri Frederic Amiel

September 28, 1821 – May 11, 1881

I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.

Henri Frédéric Amiel was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic. Born in Geneva in 1821, he was descended from a Huguenot family driven to ...

Miguel de Cervantes

September 29, 1547 – April 22, 1616

Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, often known mononymously as Cervantes, was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don ...

Wallace Stevens

October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955

Death is the mother of Beauty hence from her, alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams and our desires.

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and ...

Miguel de Unamuno

September 29, 1864 – December 31, 1936

A man does not die of love or his liver or even of old age he dies of being a man.

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, and Greek professor and later rector at the ...

Graham Greene

October 2, 1904 – April 3, 1991

Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered.

Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English novelist and author regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Combining ...

Ludwig von Mises

September 29, 1881 – October 10, 1973

Only one thing can conquer war - that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation.

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was a philosopher, Austrian School economist, sociologist, and classical liberal. He became a prominent ...

Al Capp

September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979

Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

Alfred Gerald Caplin, better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner, ...

Truman Capote

September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

Truman Streckfus Persons, known as Truman Capote, was an American author, screenwriter and playwright, many of whose short stories, novels, ...

Thomas Wolfe

October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938

Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century. Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, ...

James Herriot

October 3, 1916 – February 23, 1995

For years I used to bore my wife over lunch with stories about funny incidents.

James Alfred "Alf" Wight, OBE, FRCVS, known by the pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many ...

George Bancroft

October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891

Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God himself, were it possible.

George Bancroft was an American historian and statesman who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state and at ...

Samuel Adams

September 27, 1722 – October 2, 1803

We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them.

Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in ...

Georges Clemenceau

September 28, 1841 – November 24, 1929

All that I know I learned after I was thirty.

Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman who led the nation in the First World War. A leader of the Radical Party, he played a ...

Enrico Fermi

September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954

Ignorance is never better than knowledge.

Enrico Fermi was an Italian physicist, best known for his work on Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum ...

Faith Baldwin

October 1893 – March 18, 1978

Sometimes there is a greater lack of communication in facile talking than in silence.

Faith Baldwin was a U.S. author of romance and fiction, publishing some 100 novels, often concentrating on women juggling career and ...

Annie Besant

October 1847 – September 20, 1933

Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.

Annie Besant was a prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian ...

Pierre Bonnard

October 3, 1867 – January 23, 1947

A painting that is well composed is half finished.

Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan

October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990

Lonnie was ahead of his time, but at the same time he was right in there with Albert Collins's Cool Sounds.

Stephen Ray Vaughan, known as Stevie Ray Vaughan, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. In spite of a ...