"I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race."

Thomas Love Peacock
(10/18/1785 – 01/23/1866)
English writer

"If there's one thing for which I admire you, it's your original discovery of the Ten Commandments."

Thomas B. Reed
(10/18/1839 – 12/07/1902)
US Rep (ME), to Teddy Roosevelt

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

Henri Bergson
(10/18/1865 – 01/04/1941)
French philosopher

"An improper mind is a perpetual feast."

Logan Pearsall Smith
(10/18/1865 – 03/02/1946)
English-US writer

"There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live."

James Truslow Adams
(10/18/1878 – 05/18/1949)
US historian

"It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to."

Fannie Hurst
(10/18/1889 – 02/23/1968)
US writer

Singer: "You know, my dear, I insured my voice for fifty thousand dollars." Miriam Hopkins: "That's wonderful. And what did you do with the money?"
(10/18/1902 – 10/09/1972)
US actor

"I expect you'll be becoming a schoolmaster, sir. That's what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour."

Evelyn Waugh
(10/18/1903 – 04/10/1966)
English writer

"If you just try long enough and hard enough, you can always manage to boot yourself in the posterior."

A. J. Liebling
(10/18/1904 – 12/28/1963)
US writer (was married to Jean Stafford)

"It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there."

Pierre Trudeau
(10/18/1919 – 09/28/2000)
Canadian Prime Minister (15) (was married to Margaret), on Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

"I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at the same time. That's the kind of customers we need!"

Jesse Helms
(10/18/1921 – 07/04/2008)
US senator (NC) , at a dinner to promote the state's tobacco industry (Jesse's the older boy on the left)

"We have a strange and wonderful relationship—he's strange and I'm wonderful."

Mike Ditka
(10/18/1939 – )
US football coach, on QB Jim McMahon

"I'm just your wild working musician."

Laura Nyro
(10/18/1947 – 04/08/1997)
US singer, songwriter

"Sometimes I want to clean up my desk and go out and say, respect me, I'm a respectable grown-up, and other times I just want to jump into a paper bag and shake and bake myself to death."

Wendy Wasserstein
(10/18/1950 – 01/30/2006)
US comic

"It takes me forever to say my prayers these days, but I don't care, because this time around, I want to make sure God doesn't have to do any guesswork."

Terry McMillan
(10/18/1951 – )
US writer

"Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost!"

Martina Navratilova
(10/18/1956 – )
Czech tennis player