November 11

"We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them."

Abigail Smith Adams
(11/11/1744 – 10/28/1818)
US First Lady (2) (was married to John Adams, mother of John Quincy Adams, grandmother of Charles Francis Adams; see other US First Ladies)

"The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born."

Thomas Bailey Aldrich
(11/11/1836 – 03/19/1907)
US writer

"Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward."

Soren Kierkegaard
(05/05/1813 – 11/11/1855)
Danish philosopher

"Truth for authority, not authority for truth."

Lucretia Coffin Mott
(01/03/1793 – 11/11/1880)
US social reformer

"No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair."

General George S. Patton
(11/11/1885 – 12/21/1945)
US military

"The biggest danger for a politician is to shake hands with a man who is physically stronger, has been drinking and is voting for the other guy."

William Proxmire
(11/11/1915 – 12/15/2005)
US Senator (WI)

"Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae."

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
(11/11/1922 – 04/11/2007)
US writer

"Now the freaks are on television, the freaks are in the movies. And it's no longer the sideshow, it's the whole show. The colorful circus and the clowns and the elephants, for all intents and purposes, are gone, and we're dealing only with the freaks."

Jonathan Winters
(11/11/1925 – )
US comic actor

"Setting out just to be different is almost as bad as copying."

Mose Allison
(11/11/1928 – )
US singer, songwriter

"If the Soviet Union can give up the Brezhnev Doctrine for the Sinatra Doctrine, the United States can give up the James Monroe Doctrine for the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine: Let's all go to bed wearing the perfume we like best."

Carlos Fuentes
(11/11/1928 – )
Mexican writer

"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."

Then-Rep. Barbara Boxer
(11/11/1940 – )
US Senator (CA)

"We're horribly mundane, aggressively mundane individuals. We're the ninjas of the mundane, you might say."

Andy Partridge
(11/11/1953 – )
English singer, songwriter, guitarist (XTC)

"I'm sure there are a lot of people who think I'm a bitch."

Demi Moore
(11/11/1962 – )
US actor (was married to Bruce Willis; married to Ashton Kutcher)

"I would like to take this opportunity just to tell the press to KISS MY SKINNY WHITE ASS"

Calista Flockhart
(11/11/1964 – )
US actor , on the Letterman show

"The concept of two people living together for 25 years without a serious dispute suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep."

Sir Alan P. Herbert
(09/24/1890 – 11/11/1971)
English writer

"Everywhere I go, somebody is staring at me, I don't know if people are staring because they recognize me or because they think I'm a weirdo."

Leonardo DiCaprio
(11/11/1974 – )
US actor

"The chickens have come home to roast."

Jane Sherwood Ace
(10/12/1900 – 11/11/1974)
US radio comic (was married to Goodman Ace)

"I paint with shapes."

Alexander Calder
(07/22/1898 – 11/11/1976)
US sculptor

"Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist."

Yasser Arafat
(08/24/1929 – 11/11/2004)
Palestinian president

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

Peter F. Drucker
(11/19/1909 – 11/11/2005)
Austrian educator, writer, management consultant