November 21

"Dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres.
(In this country [England], it is thought well to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.)"

Jean Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
(11/21/1694 – 05/30/1778)
French philosopher

"The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so."

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
(11/21/1863 – 05/12/1944)
English writer

"Considering that his hair is like that of a gollywog and his clothes noticeable the other end of Trafalgar Square, this is an odd assertion."

Harold Nicolson
(11/21/1886 – 05/01/1968)
Iran-born English writer (husband of Vita Sackville-West, father of Nigel Nicolson) , on his son's professed horror of being conspicuous

"In this country men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire."

Charles Francis Adams
(08/18/1807 – 11/21/1886)
US Representative (MA) (son of John Quincy Adams, grandson of John Adams and Abigail Smith Adams)

"Friends are God's apology for relations."

Hugh Kingsmill
(11/21/1889 – 05/15/1949)
English writer

"Between ourselves it's terrible what one lays one self open to when drawing an innocent picture."

René Magritte
(11/21/1898 – 08/15/1967)
Belgian painter

"A good writer is not, per se, a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender."

Jim Bishop
(11/21/1907 – 07/26/1987)
US writer

"Finish last in your league and they call you idiot. Finish last in medical school and they call you doctor."

Abe Lemons
(11/21/1922 – 09/02/2002)
US basketball coach

"Well, I've got you the presidency, what are you going to do with it?"

Florence Harding
(??/??/1860 – 11/21/1924)
US first lady (31) (was married to Warren G. Harding; see other US First Ladies)

"To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons."

Marilyn French
(11/21/1929 – 05/02/2009)
US writer

"Never face facts; if you do you'll never get up in the morning."

Marlo Thomas
(11/21/1938 – )
US actor ("That Girl") (daughter of Danny Thomas; married to Phil Donahue)

"I thought they was paddin' the payrolls or something. I didn't realize they were using five piano players and six guitar guys cause it was something they dug."

"Dr. John"
(11/21/1940 – )
US pianist, "night tripper"

"Acting is all about big hair and funny props... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it."

Harold Ramis
(11/21/1944 – )
US writer, actor, producer

"There are only three ages for women in Hollywood—Babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy."

Goldie Hawn
(11/21/1945 – )
US actor (partner of Kurt Russell, mother of Kate Hudson)

"A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away."

Ellen Glasgow
(04/22/1874 – 11/21/1945)
US writer

Dorothy Parker (on hearing Calvin Coolidge had died): "How can they tell?"
Robert Benchley: "He had an erection."
(09/15/1889 – 11/21/1945)
US writer

"All we had ever heard about record company people was that they were vampires and criminals and they killed Elvis Presley."

Björk
(11/21/1965 – )
Icelandic singer, songwriter

"I don't worry about the past. The homers will take care of the future. And that will make the present okay."

Ken Griffey Jr.
(11/21/1969 – )
US baseball player

"The worst disease which can afflict business executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism."

Harold S. Geneen
(06/11/1910 – 11/21/1997)
US businessman (ITT)

"Toward the end of her life she looked like a hungry insect magnified a million times."

Quentin Crisp
(12/25/1908 – 11/21/1999)
One of the Stately Old Homos of England , on Joan Crawford