January 12

"And perhaps, posterity will thank me for having shown it that the ancients did not know everything."

Pierre de Fermat
(08/16/1601 – 01/12/1665)
French mathematician , notes in the margin of his copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica

"It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare."

Edmund Burke
(01/12/1729 – 07/09/1797)
Irish statesman

"A critic is a reader who ruminates. Thus, he should have more than one stomach."

Friedrich von Schlegel
(03/10/1772 – 01/12/1829)
German writer, critic

"A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth."

John Singer Sargent
(01/12/1856 – 04/15/1925)
Italian-born US artist

"All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark."

Swami Vivekananda
(01/12/1863 – 07/04/1902)
Indian spiritual leader

"You can't wait for inspiration—you have to go after it with a club."

Jack London
(01/12/1876 – 11/22/1916)
US writer

"I don't think the federation has a head; its neck has just grown up and haired over."

John L. Lewis
(01/12/1880 – 06/11/1969)
US labor leader

"I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in fourteen days I lost two weeks."

Joe E. Lewis
01/12/1902 – 06/04/1971)
US actor

"My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle."

Henny Youngman
(01/12/1906 – 02/24/1998)
US comedian

"Estelle Winwood is not Tallulah's best friend! I am! And I've got the scars to prove it!"

Patsy Kelly
(01/12/1910 – 09/24/1981)
US actor

"Kill the body and the head will die."

Joe Frazier
(01/12/1944 – )
US boxer

"If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation."

Rush Limbaugh
(01/12/1951 – )
rotund right-wing US talk-show host

"Writing a book just might be the hardest thing I've ever done, besides trying to get laid in college."

Howard Stern
(01/12/1954 – )
US radio personality

"I don't think that [children are] any more resilient than anyone else. They're just people with little bodies."

Kirstie Alley
(01/12/1955 – )
US actor

"The willow tree plays the water like a harp."

Ramon Gomez de la Serna
(07/03/1888 – 01/12/1963)
Spanish writer

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."

Lorraine Hansberry
(05/19/1930 – 01/12/1965)
US writer

"I like Paris. My problem is I don't like Parisians."

Olivier Martinez
(01/12/1966 – )
French actor

"Anger is a gift."

Zack de la Rocha
(01/12/1970 – )
US singer (Rage Against the Machine) (also see Tom Morello)

"I have always admired the Esquimaux (Eskimos). One fine day a delicious meal is cooked for dear old mother, and then she goes walking away over the ice, and doesn't come back."

Agatha Christie
(09/15/1890 – 01/12/1976)
English writer

"The Nixon Political Principle: If two wrongs don't make a right, try three."

Dr. Lawrence J. Peter
(09/16/1919 – 01/12/1990)
US pop psychologist, writer

"People accuse us of being nothing more than a disco band now, but they don't know what they're talking about. If you listen to our records, you'll find that there's dance music. But there are also ballads like 'More Than A Woman.' And there are some very beautiful, undanceable songs, too."

Maurice Gibb
(12/22/1949 – 01/12/2003)
English singer (Bee Gees) (brother of Barry, Robin, and Andy Gibb)