January 23

"A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life."

John Hancock
(01/23/1737 – 10/08/1793)
US founding father

"Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance."

Giambattista Vico
(06/23/1668 – 01/23/1744)
Italian philosopher

"Nothing is so hideous as an obsolete fashion."

Stendhal
(01/23/1783 – 03/23/1842)
French writer

"I won't change a thing in his portrait. Is it my fault if Moore looks like a squashed egg yolk and if his face is all lopsided? Anyway, the same applies to everybody's face ... There's no symmetry in nature. One eye is never exactly the same as the other, there's always a difference. We all have a more or less crooked nose and an irregular mouth."

Edouard Manet
(01/23/1831 – 04/30/1883)
French artist (Monet is here) , on his portrait of George Moore

"The mountain sheep are sweeter,
but the valley sheep are fatter;
we therefore deem it meeter
to carry off the latter."

Thomas Love Peacock
(10/18/1785 – 01/23/1866)
English writer

"Young blood must have its course, lad, and every dog its day."

Charles Kingsley
(06/12/1819 – 01/23/1875)
English clergy

"Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God's Paradise."

Phillips Brooks
(12/13/1835 – 01/23/1893)
US clergyman

"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."

Humphrey Bogart
(01/23/1899 – 01/14/1957)
US actor (was married to Lauren Bacall)

"There is currently a formula for success in the entertainment medium, that is: beat it to death if it succeeds."

Ernie Kovacs
(01/23/1919 – 01/13/1962)
US TV pioneer

"[Burt Lancaster] couldn't pick up an ashtray before discussing his motivation for an hour or so."

Jeanne Moreau
(01/23/1928 – )
French actor

"Get my Swan costume ready."

Anna Pavlova
(01/03/1885 – 01/23/1931)
Russian dancer , last words

Marie Prevost
(11/08/1898 – 01/23/1937)
US actor

"Excuse me, my leg has gone to sleep. Do you mind if I join it?"

Alexander Woollcott
(01/19/1887 – 01/23/1943)
US writer (died near his birthday)

"Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure, and express your pleasure strongly."

Pierre Bonnard
(10/03/1867 – 01/23/1947)
French artist

"This is a thousand times more frightening than 'The Exorcist.' I intend to cover it with mayonnaise."

Salvador Dali
(05/11/1904 – 01/23/1989)
Spanish surrealist , on being presented with an inflatable statue of Bugs Bunny

"Between religion's 'this is' and poetry's 'but suppose this is,' there must always be some kind of tension, until the possible and the actual meet at infinity."

Northrop Frye
(07/14/1912 – 01/23/1991)
Canadian writer

"Rich means you have to stay there to maintain it."

Nell Carter
(09/13/1944 – 01/23/2003)
US actor

"I was impressed with the potential positive relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, so I chose an elderly character."

Captain Kangaroo
(06/27/1927 – 01/23/2004)
US entertainer

"Today I have a strong desire to photograph women clothed from head to foot with hardly an inch of flesh. It will be a challenge to work under such restraints."

Helmut Newton
(10/31/1920 – 01/23/2004
German-Australian photographer

"For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off."

Johnny Carson
(10/23/1925 – 01/23/2005)
US TV host , Tonight Show (also see Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Jay Leno)

"To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature."

Ernst Fischer
(11/10/1918 – 01/23/2007)
German chemist, educator

"I can't die. It would ruin my image."

Jack LaLanne
(09/26/1914 – 01/23/2011)
US exercise maven