January 21

"If a faithful account was rendered of Man's ideas upon Divinity, he would be obliged to acknowledge, that for the most part the word 'gods' has been used to express the concealed, remote, unknown causes of the effects he witnessed; that he applies this term when the spring of the natural, the source of known causes, ceases to be visible: as soon as he loses the thread of these causes, or as soon as his mind can no longer follow the chain, he solves the difficulty, terminates his research, by ascribing it to his gods.... When, therefore, he ascribes to his gods the production of some phenomenon ... does he, in fact, do any thing more than substitute for the darkness of his own mind, a sound to which he has been accustomed to listen with reverential awe?"

Paul Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach
(12/08/1723 – 01/21/1789)
German philosopher

"I like liquor—its taste and its effects—and that is just the reason why I never drink it."

"Stonewall" Jackson
(01/21/1824 – 05/10/1863)
US Civil War General

"Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting."

Karl Wallenda
(01/21/1905 – 03/22/1978)
Austro-Hungarian aerialist

"My dream is to save women from nature."

Christian Dior
(01/21/1905 – 10/24/1957)
French fashion designer

"Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost."

Vladimir Ilich Lenin
(04/22/1870 – 01/21/1924)
Russian political leader

"Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect."

Benny Hill
(01/21/1925 – 04/20/1992)
English comic actor

"Discretion is not the better part of biography."

Lytton Giles Strachey
(03/01/1880 – 01/21/1932)
English biographer

"A literary movement consists of five or six people who live in the same town and hate each other cordially."

George Augustus Moore
(02/24/1852 – 01/21/1933)
Irish writer

"Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."

George Orwell
(06/25/1903 – 01/21/1950)
English writer

"The last time I saw anything like this I was playing for Tastee Freeze in the Little League."

Dave Smigh
(01/21/1955 – )
US pitcher (Astros) , on being behind by 14 runs in the first inning

"I've always looked up to him, even though he is shorter."

Geena Davis
(01/21/1957 – )
US actor , on Dustin Hoffman

"The jawbone of an ass! Never! This is a DeMille picture and we've got to use the WHOLE ass!"

(assistant to) Cecil B. de Mille
(08/12/1881 – 01/21/1959)
US director (uncle of Agnes de Mille) , filming "The Ten Commandments"

"I can whistle through my fingers, bulldog a steer, light a fire with two sticks, shoot a pistol with fair accuracy, set type, and teach school..."

Ann Sheridan
(02/21/1915 – 01/21/1967)
US actor

"I wanted to save the world. I still do. But half the time I'm still trying to save myself first."

Cat Power
(01/21/1972 – )
US singer, songwriter

"I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around."

James Beard
(05/05/1903 – 01/21/1985)
US chef

"They weren't really weddings, just long costume parties."

Peggy Lee
(05/26/1920 – 01/21/2002)
US singer , on three of her weddings