"Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example."

Duc Francois de la Rochefoucald
(09/15/1613 – 03/17/1680)
French writer

William Howard Taft: "I have been talking for a quarter of an hour, but there is so much noise that I can hardly hear myself talk."

Crowd member: "That's all right, you're not missing anything."
(09/15/1857 – 03/08/1930)
US President (27) (see all US Presidents)

Friend: "That drink is slow poison."

Robert Benchley: "So who's in a hurry?"
(09/15/1889 – 11/21/1945)
US writer

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness—to save oneself trouble."

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

"Goodbye, Mr. Zanuck; it certainly has been a pleasure working at Sixteenth Century Fox."

Jean Renoir
(09/15/1894 – 02/12/1979)
French filmmaker (son of Pierre Auguste)

"Don't be a blueprint. Be an original."

Roy Acuff
(09/15/1903 – 11/23/1992)
US singer

"That youthful sparkle in his eyes is caused by his contact lenses, which he keeps highly polished."

Sheilah Graham
(09/15/1904 – 11/17/1988)
US writer, on Ronald Reagan

"I would stand on the floor, and they would bring this arm down and cinch it around my waist, then pull me up in the air. Every time I moved, one of the fingers would loosen, so it would look like I was trying to get away. Actually, I was trying not to slip through his hand."

Fay Wray
(09/15/1907 – 08/08/2004)
US actor

"I'm proud and grateful I was Blondie, She was dumb and shrewish sometimes, but she was real and sympathetic and warm, a real woman, a human being. And that's how I tried to play her."

Penny Singleton
(09/15/1909 – 11/12/2003)
US actor ("Blondie")

"You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree."

John Mitchell
(09/15/1913 – 11/09/1988)
US Secretary of State (Was married to Martha Mitchell)

"You've got to take Chances in life."

Nelson Minter
(09/15/1957 – 12/03/1993)
US friend and schoolmate (his son is named Chance)