September 14

"There is no greater grief than to remember days of joy when misery is at hand."

Dante Alighieri
(05/21/1265 – 09/14/1321)
Italian writer

"Perfect as the wing of a bird may be, it will never enable the bird to fly if unsupported by the air. Facts are the air of science. Without them a man of science can never rise."

Ivan Pavlov
(09/14/1849 – 02/27/1936)
Russian scientist

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, etc.

"Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won."

Arthur Wellesley
(05/01/1769 – 09/14/1852)
Duke of Wellington, English army commander, PM (21) (see other British PMs) (image courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library)

"Justice is better than chivalry if we cannot have both."

Alice Stone Blackwell
(09/14/1857 – 03/15/1950)
US suffragist

"Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts."

Margaret Sanger
(09/14/1883 – 09/06/1966)
US nurse, founder of Planned Parenthood

"Our differences are politics, our agreements principles."

William McKinley
(01/29/1843 – 09/14/1901)
US President (25) (see all US Presidents)

"Once I got the Lone Ranger role, I didn't want any other."

Clayton Moore
(09/14/1914 – 12/28/1999)
US actor

"The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers."

Sydney J. Harris
(09/14/1917 – 12/08/1986)
English-born writer

"Winfield goes back to the wall. He hits his head on the wall and it rolls off! It's rolling all the way back to second base! This is a terrible thing for the Padres!"

Jerry Coleman
(09/14/1924 – )
US sportscaster

"Farewell, my friends. I am going to glory."

Isadora Duncan
(05/27/1878 – 09/14/1927)
US dancer , parting words to her friends as she rode off wearing a too-long scarf that later tangled in the car's wheels and killed her

"A great actress, from the waist down."

Dame Margaret Kendal
(03/15/1849 – 09/14/1935)
English actor , on Sarah Bernhardt

"Novelty is always welcome but talking pictures are just a fad."

Irving Thalberg
(05/30/1899 – 09/14/1936)
US film director (was married to Norma Shearer [shown])

"The mome rath isn't born that could outgrabe me."

Nicol Williamson
(09/14/1938 – )
Scottish actor

"Capital punishment is either an affront to humanity or a potential parking place."

Larry Brown
(09/14/1940 – )
US writer or comic or...? (It's hard to find info on people with common names)

"Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat."

John Lehman
(09/14/1942 – )
US Secretary of Navy

"When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers."

Colleen C. Barrett
(09/14/1944 – )
US airline executive

"My thanks to the Academy for the very finest, greatest award that any actor can ever receive. The only thing a man can say at a time like this is—I am not really bald."

Tommy Lee Jones
(09/14/1946 – )
US actor

"They say I'm unsubtle. But we need above all, a theatre that wakes us up: nerves and heart."

Oliver Stone
(09/14/1946 – )
US director

"I'm playing a cat burglar. I've made it. This is the high point of my career. I'm really chuffed."

Sam Neill
(09/14/1947 – )
Irish-born New Zealand actor , on Simpsons episode 1F09

"I like the pleasant things most women enjoy, even if I do wear breeches and boots on an expedition, even sleep in them at times.... but I powder my nose before going on deck, no matter how rough the sea is."

Louise Arner Boyd
(09/16/1887 – 09/14/1972)
US explorer (died near her birthday)

"Hollywood amuses me. Holier-than-thou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality."

Grace Kelly
(11/12/1929 – 09/14/1982)
US actor

"Girls talk to each other like men talk to each other. But girls have an eye for detail."

Amy Winehouse
(09/14/1983 – 07/23/2011)
English singer, songwriter

"The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved."

J. Russell Lynes
(02/12/1910 – 09/14/1991)
US writer

"The way to screw up somebody's life is to give them what they want."

Patrick Swayze
(08/18/1952 – 09/14/2009)
US actor