May 08

"A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted."

Francis Quarles
(05/08/1592 – 09/08/1644)
English writer

"The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful."

Edward Gibbon
(05/08/1737 – 01/16/1794)
English historian

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong."

Charles Wadsworth
(05/08/1814 – 04/01/1882)
US clergy

"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next."

John Stuart Mill
(05/20/1806 – 05/08/1873)
English philosopher, economist

"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost."

Gustave Flaubert
(12/12/1821 – 05/08/1880)
French writer

"Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day."

Harry S Truman
(05/08/1884 – 12/26/1972)
US President (33), VP (34) (was married to Bess Truman; see all US Presidents, VPs)

"Be humble, if thou would'st attain to Wisdom. Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou hast mastered."

Madame Helene Petrovna Blavatsky
(08/12/1831 – 05/08/1891)
Russian writer, mystic

"An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support."

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
(05/08/1895 – 12/10/1979)
US religious guy

"All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely."

Edmund Wilson
(05/08/1895 – 06/12/1972)
US critic

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."

Paul Gauguin
(06/07/1848 – 05/08/1903)
French painter

"Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders."

Sloan Wilson
(05/08/1920 – 05/25/2003)
US writer (Man In The Grey Flannel Suit)

"When you enter a room, you have to kiss his ring. I don't mind, but he has it in his back pocket."

Don Rickles
(05/08/1926 – )
US comic , on Frank Sinatra

"A boxing match is like a cowboy movie. There's got to be good guys and there's got to be bad guys. And that's what people pay for—to see the bad guys get beat."

Sonny Liston
(05/08/1932 – 12/30/1970)
US boxer

"Certainly we have bad paintings. We have only the greatest bad paintings."

Françoise Cachin
(05/08/1936 – )
French writer and museum director

"If few can stand a long war without deterioration of soul, none can stand a long peace."

Oswald Spengler
(05/29/1880 – 05/08/1936)
German philosopher

"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

Robert Adams
(05/08/1937 – )
US photographer

"A career is a series of comebacks."

Rick Nelson
(05/08/1940 – 12/31/1985)
US singer

"And all writing is creating or spinning dreams for other people so they won't have to bother doing it themselves."

Beth Henley
(05/08/1952 – )
US writer

"The idiot lived in a black and gray world, punctuated by the white lightning of hunger and the flickering of fear. His clothes were old and many-windowed. Here peeped a shinbone, sharp as a cold chisel, and there in the torn coat were ribs like the fingers of a fist. He was tall and flat. His eyes were calm and his face was dead."

Theodore Sturgeon
(02/26/1918 – 05/08/1985)
US writer

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss."

Robert A. Heinlein
(07/07/1907 – 05/08/1988)
US writer

"Live your life. Live your life. Live your life."

Maurice Sendak
(06/10/1928 – 05/08/2012)
US writer/illustrator (Where the Wild Things Are)