March 14

"Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows."

George Frederick Handel
(03/14/1681 – 04/14/1759)
German composer , on the "Hallelujah Chorus" of his "Messiah"

"Five minutes! Zounds! I have been five minutes late all my life-time!"

Hannah Cowley
(03/14/1743 – 03/11/1809)
US writer (died near her birthday)

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

Albert Einstein
(03/14/1879 – 04/18/1955)
German physicist (was married to Elsa Einstein)

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great historical facts and personages occur as it were twice. He forgets to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."

Karl Marx
(05/05/1818 – 03/14/1883)
German philosopher (father of Eleanor Marx)

"The same dress is indecent ten years before its time; daring one year before its time; chic (contemporarily seductive) in its time; dowdy five years after its time; hideous twenty years after its time; amusing thirty years after its time; romantic one hundred years after its time; beautiful one hundred and fifty years after its time."

James Laver
(03/14/1899 – 06/03/1975)
English fashion designer, critic

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land among the stars."

Les Brown
(03/14/1912 – 01/04/2001)
US bandleader

"Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it."

Hank Ketcham
(03/14/1920 – 06/01/2001)
US cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."

Diane Arbus
(03/14/1923 – 07/28/1971)
US photographer

"You push the button, we do the rest."

George Eastman
(07/12/1854 – 03/14/1932)
US inventor

"First of all, I choose the great [roles], and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent."

Michael Caine
(03/14/1933 – )
English actor

"I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it."

Quincy Jones
(03/14/1933 – )
US music producer

"There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users.'"

Edward Tufte
(03/14/1942 – )
US design and usability maven

"I am amazed at radio DJs today. I am firmly convinced that AM on my radio stands for Absolute Moron. I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for."

Jasper Carrott
(03/14/1945 – )
British comic

"Women need a reason to have sex—men just need a place."

Billy Crystal
(03/14/1947 – )
US comic, actor

"Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

Howard Aiken
(03/08/1900 – 03/14/1973)
US mathematician, engineer (died near his birthday)

"I don't relax because I don't know how. I don't want to know how. Life is too short to relax."

Susan Hayward
(06/30/1917 – 03/14/1975)
US actor

"But you see now baby, whether you have a ph.d., d.d. or no d, we're in this bag together. And whether you are from Morehouse or Nohouse, we're still in this bag together."

Fannie Lou Hamer
(10/06/1917 – 03/14/1977)
US activist

"Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our antimaterialist, otherworldly, New Age, spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu, and seaweed slime."

Edward Abbey
(01/29/1927 – 03/14/1989)
US writer