Born this week
Sunday May 24th, 2026
Ralph Waldo Emerson
May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882
All diseases run into one, old age.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was ...
Gilbert K. Chesterton
May 29, 1874 – June 14, 1936
All architecture is great architecture after sunset perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, lay theologian, poet, philosopher, dramatist, ...
John F. Kennedy
May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963
We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly known as Jack Kennedy or by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President ...
James A. Baldwin
May 26, 1886 – August 2, 1964
People can cry much easier than they can change.
James A. "Jim" Baldwin was an American football player, track athlete, coach of football, basketball, and baseball, and college athletics ...
Hubert H. Humphrey
May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978
This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon ...
Patrick Henry
May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799
Give me liberty or give me death.
Patrick Henry was an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in ...
John Cheever
May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982
I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do it alone.
John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is ...
Joseph Brodsky
May 24, 1940 – January 28, 1996
For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky was a Jewish poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad in 1940, Brodsky ran afoul of Soviet authorities and was ...
Thomas Moore
May 28, 1779 – February 25, 1852
Study until twenty-five, investigation until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance.
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last ...
Harry Emerson Fosdick
May 24, 1878 – October 5, 1969
Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success.
Harry Emerson Fosdick was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the "Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy" within American ...
Mikhail Bakunin
May 30, 1814 – July 1876
A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most ...
Alastair Campbell
May 25, 1957 – 2025
My dad, Donald, was a vet and had a practice in Yorkshire. Cats and dogs were his bread and butter, but his greatest love was large animals.
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of ...
Isadora Duncan
May 27, 1877 – September 14, 1927
So that ends my first experience of matrimony, which I always thought a highly over-rated performance.
Angela Isadora Duncan was an American dancer. Born in California, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until ...
John Wayne
May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979
Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.
Marion Mitchell Morrison, better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. An Academy ...
Miles Davis
May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991
Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential ...
Arnold Bennett
May 27, 1867 – March 27, 1931
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 - 27 March 1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other ...
Julia Ward Howe
May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910
While your life is the true expression of your faith, whom can you fear?
Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 - October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, poet, and the author of "The ...
Alfred Austin
May 30, 1835 – June 2, 1913
Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.
Alfred Austin (30 May 1835 - 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 upon the death of Alfred, Lord ...
John Jewel
May 24, 1522 – September 23, 1571
As the body dieth when the soul departeth, so the soul of man dieth, when it hath not the knowledge of God.
John Jewel (sometimes spelled Jewell) (24 May 1522 - 23 September 1571) was an English bishop of Salisbury. He was the son of John Jewel ...
David Viscott
May 24, 1938 – October 10, 1996
If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
David Viscott, was an American psychiatrist, author, businessman, and media personality. He was a graduate of Dartmouth, Tufts Medical ...
Gene Tunney
May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978
Exercise should be regarded as tribute to the heart.
James Joseph "Gene" Tunney was an American professional boxer and the world heavyweight champion from 1926 - 28. Having defeated Jack ...
Edmond de Goncourt
May 26, 1822 – July 16, 1896
The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.
Edmond de Goncourt (May 26, 1822 - July 16, 1896), born Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt, was a French writer, literary critic, art ...
Cornelius Vanderbilt
May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877
If I had learned education I would not have had time to learn anything else.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American business magnate and philanthropist who built his wealth in ...
Randolph Bourne
May 30, 1886 – December 22, 1918
Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience.
Randolph Silliman Bourne was a progressive writer and "leftist intellectual" born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia ...