February 16

"True friendship is like sound health. The value of it is seldom known until it be lost."

Charles Caleb Cotton
(04/28/1630 – 02/16/1687)
English writer (there is a Charles Caleb Colton from the 18th century who I may be mis-citing here, but I don't find specific dates, so will leave this one here for now -s)

"Well-washed and well-combed domestic pets grow dull; they miss the stimulus of fleas."

Sir Francis Galton
(02/16/1822 – 01/17/1911)
English scientist

"There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence."

Henry Brooks Adams
(02/16/1838 – 03/27/1918)
US writer

"Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading."

G. M. Trevelyan
(02/16/1876 – 07/21/1962)
English historian

"There's a saying among prospectors: 'Go out looking for one thing, and that's all you'll ever find.'"

Robert Flaherty
(02/16/1884 – 07/23/1951)
US director

"His mind was like a Roquefort cheese, so ripe that it was palpably falling to pieces."

Van Wyck Brooks
(02/16/1886 – 05/02/1963)
US historian, critic , on Ford Maddox Ford

"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"

Edgar Bergen (as Charlie McCarthy)
(02/16/1903 – 09/30/1978)
US comic, actor (father of Candice Bergen)

"What do you give a man who has everything? Penicillin."

Jerry Lester
(02/16/1910 – 03/23/1995)
US actor

"Getting involved is so, so ... involving."

Vera-Ellen
(02/16/1921 – 08/30/1981)
US dancer, actor

"Hollywood is an extraordinary kind of temporary place."

John Schlesinger
(02/16/1926 – 07/25/2003)
English director

"The writer in western civilization has become not a voice of his tribe, but of his individuality. This is a very narrow-minded situation."

Aharon Appelfeld
(02/16/1932 – )
Romanian writer

"You're just borrowing it. It's like money. You're going to die, and somebody else is going to get it."

Sonny Bono
(02/16/1935 – 01/05/1998)
US singer, congressman (was married to Cher) , on fame

"Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do."

James Harvey Robinson
(06/29/1863 – 02/16/1936)
US historian

"For a time, I was living the life of Ernest Hemingway."

Margaux Hemingway
(02/16/1954 – 07/02/1996)
US actor (granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway; sister of Mariel Hemingway)

"This taught me a lesson, but I'm not sure what it is."

John McEnroe
(02/16/1959 – )
US tennis ace , on losing a championship

"I think you have to control the materials to an extent, but it's important to let the materials have a kind of power for themselves; like the natural power of gravity, if you are painting on a wall, it makes the paint trickle and it drips; there is no reason to fight that."

Keith Haring
(05/04/1958 – 02/16/1990)
US artist

"Books about books is fun but frivolous."

Angela Carter
(05/07/1940 – 02/16/1992)
English writer

"Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them."

John W. Gardner
(10/08/1912 – 02/16/2002)
US writer, political theorist

"If you can bring yourself to imagine Liberace as King Lear, you will perhaps have some concept of what takes place in what is indubitably the worst musical since Mel Brooks's Springtime For Hitler."

Sheridan Morley
(12/05/1941 – 02/16/2007)
English writer (son of Robert Morley)