February 20

"I trust the time is coming, when the occupation of an instructor to children will be deemed the most honorable of human employment."

Angelina Grimke
(02/20/1805 – 10/26/1879)
US abolitionist, suffragist, writer

"There is no stronger craving in the world than that of the rich for titles, except that of the titled for riches."

Hesketh Pearson
(02/20/1887 – 04/09/1964)
English actor

"It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so."

Georges Bernanos
(02/20/1888 – 07/05/1948)
French writer

"The mind does not take its complexion from the skin."

Frederick Douglass
(02/07/1817 – 02/20/1895)
US abolitionist, writer

"There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept."

Ansel Adams
(02/20/1902 – 04/22/1984)
US photographer

"If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far. You simply won't. The journey has been incredible from its beginning. So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness."

Sidney Poitier
(02/20/1924 – )
US actor

"The fame you earn has a different taste from the fame that is forced upon you."

Gloria Vanderbilt
(02/20/1924 – )
US fashion designer

"We're not against each other. They sell shoes and I make gloves."

Robert Altman
(02/20/1925 – 11/20/2006)
US film director , on rumors that he was at odds with Hollywood

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

Ken Olson
(02/20/1926 – )
US businessman, DEC founder

"If money, education, and honesty will not bring to me as much privilege, as much equality as they bring to any American citizen, then they are to me a curse, and not a blessing."

John Hope
(06/02/1868 – 02/20/1936)
US educator

Ian St. John: "Is he speaking to you yet?"
Jimmy Greaves: "Not yet, but I hope to be incommunicado with him in a very short space of time."
(02/20/1940 – )
English footballer

"Here the melting-pot stands open—if you're willing to get bleached first."

Buffy Sainte-Marie
(02/20/1941 – )
US singer, songwriter

"Just because we've been around so long, they had to give us something, I guess."

Walter Becker
(02/20/1950 – )
US musician (Steely Dan) (also see Donald Fagen)

"Lux and I have always been reckless and sought out thrills, taken risks, probably blown our minds in certain pursuits. It's only from living this way that we come up with this stuff."

Poison Ivy Rorschach
(02/20/1953 – )
US guitarist (Cramps) (also see Lux Interior; thanks to Dirk for great Cramps info!)

"We don't need refs, but I guess white guys need something to do."

Charles Barkley
(02/20/1963 – )
US basketball player

"Richard doesn't really like me to kill bugs, but sometimes I can't help it."

Cindy Crawford
(02/20/1966 – )
US supermodel (was married to Richard Gere)

"It's been very important for me to follow my gut or my heart, or whichever organ you want to go by."

Lili Taylor
(02/20/1967 – )
US actor

"Nobody deserves to have their personal life pried into like I did and no one deserves to hear me whine about it so much."

Kurt Cobain
(02/20/1967 – 04/05/1994)
US singer, songwriter, guitarist (Nirvana) (was married to Courtney Love)

"They shot too many pictures, and not enough actors."

Walter Winchell
(04/07/1897 – 02/20/1972)
US journalist , on Hollywood

"It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired—you quit when the gorilla is tired."

Robert Strauss
(11/08/1913 – 02/20/1975)
US actor

"Two-thirds mush and one-third Eleanor."

Alice Roosevelt Longworth
(02/12/1884 – 02/20/1980)
US royalty (daughter of Theodore Roosevelt) , on Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

Hunter S. Thompson
(07/18/1939 – 02/20/2005)
US "gonzo" journalist , Stanley in Oz created the animation; where is he now?

"If there's a pileup, they'll have to give some of the players artificial insemination."

Curt Gowdy
(07/31/1919 – 02/20/2006)
US sports announcer , announcing for the AFL all-star game on a flooded field