October 25

"'By God,' quod he, 'for pleynly, at a word,
they drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord!'"

Geoffrey Chaucer
(?/1342 – 10/25/1400)
Father of English literature

"I am sick to death of all this foolish stuff, and wish with all my heart that the Devil may take all your bishops, and the Devil take your ministers, and the Devil take your Parliament, and the Devil take the whole island, provided I can get out of it and go to Hanover."

King George II
(11/09/1683 – 10/25/1760)
German king of England

"Thank you, madam, the agony is abated."

Lord Thomas Babington MacCaulay
(10/25/1800 – 12/28/1859)
English historian , at age 4, after having hot coffee spilled on his legs

"It takes a long time to become young."

Pablo Picasso
(10/25/1881 – 04/08/1973)
Spanish artist

"Singing is such an excellent thing, that I wish all people would sing."

Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd
(10/25/1888 – 03/11/1957)
US explorer

"Some people call me a ham—in my day it was called acting."

Micheál MacLiammóir
(10/25/1899 – 03/06/1978)
English writer, actor

"The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion."

Henry Steele Commager
(10/25/1902 – 03/02/1998)
US historian

"No art that is not in the end understood by the People can live or ever did live a single generation."

Frank Norris
(03/05/1870 – 10/25/1902)
US writer

"The doctor must have put my pacemaker in wrong. Every time my husband kisses me, the garage door goes up."

Minnie Pearl
(10/25/1912 – 03/04/1996)
US comic

"Something has been said for sobriety but very little."

John Berryman
(10/25/1914 – 01/07/1972)
US writer

"Try being my size and going into a public restroom."

Billy Barty
(10/25/1924 – 12/23/2000)
US actor

"I practice when I'm loaded."

Zoot Sims
(10/25/1925 – 03/23/1985)
US saxophonist , when asked how he could play so well when he was loaded

"I told him to take a picture of his testicles so he'd have something to remember them by if he ever took another shot like the last one."

Bobby Knight
(10/25/1940 – )
US basketball coach , on a sideline conversation with a player

"While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put."

Anne Tyler
(10/25/1941 – )
US writer

"If you drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find."

James Carville
(10/25/1944 – )
US political consultant , on Paula Jones' allegations that Bill Clinton sexually harassed her

"The prospect of having naked ladies in the garden certainly awakes the interest of many a gardener, whose ardor I hope is at least partially satisfied by the horticultural version, Amaryllis belladonna."

Brent Dickerson
(10/25/1954 – )
US gardener

"There are certain things which are not jokes, Gogarty, and one of them is my hanging."

Lord Dunsany
(07/24/1878 – 10/25/1957)
English writer

"I didn't know the full dimensions of forever, but I knew it was longer than waiting for Christmas to come."

Richard Brautigan
(01/30/1935 – 10/25/1984)
US writer

"You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex."

Mary McCarthy
(06/21/1912 – 10/25/1989)
US writer

"If I had my life to live over, I wouldn't have time."

Roger Miller
(01/02/1936 – 10/25/1992)
US singer, songwriter

"I don't play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge."

Vincent Price
(05/27/1911 – 10/25/1993)
US actor

"Women who can, do. Those who can't, become feminists."

Bobby Riggs
(02/25/1918 – 10/25/1995)
US tennis freak

"I'm not interested in reputation or immortality or things like that... I don't care what I'm remembered for. I don't care if I'm remembered. I don't care if I'm not remembered. I don't care why I'm remembered. I genuinely don't care."

Richard Harris
(10/01/1930 – 10/25/2002)
Irish actor