December 23

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"The people must grant a hearing to the best poets they have; else they will never have better."

Harriet Monroe
(12/23/1860 – 09/26/1936)
US poet

"Next to excellence is the appreciation of it."

William Makepeace Thackeray
(07/18/1811 – 12/23/1863)
India-born English writer

"Women are early taught that to appear to yield is the only way to govern."

Sarah Moore Grimke
(11/26/1792 – 12/23/1873)
US abolitionist, suffragist

"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."

Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa
(12/23/1896 – 07/23/1957)
Italian writer

"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can."

Yousuf Karsh
(12/23/1908 – 07/13/2002)
Armenian-Turkish-Canadian photographer

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?"

Harry Shearer
(12/23/1943 – )
US actor, musician (SNL, "Derek Smalls" in Spinal Tap)

"Do nerds never sleep?"

Joan Severance
(12/23/1958 – )
US actor

"True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes."

Edward F. Halifax
(04/16/1881 – 12/23/1959)
English statesman

"I think celebrities suck."

Eddie Vedder
(12/23/1965 – )
US singer (Pearl Jam)

"You want something by Bach? Which one, Johann Sebastian or Jacques Offen?"

Victor Borge
(01/03/1909 – 12/23/2000)
Danish entertainer

"The name of my condition is Cartilage Hair Hypoplasia, but you can just call me Billy."

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

"You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz."

Oscar Peterson
(08/15/1925 – 12/23/2007)
Canadian pianist, composer