"Swans sing before they die—'twere no bad thing
should certain persons die before they sing."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(10/21/1772 – 07/25/1834)
English writer

"The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs."

Alphonse de Lamartine
(10/21/1790 – 02/28/1869)
French writer

"Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age."

Alfred Nobel
(10/21/1833 – 12/10/1896)
Swedish chemist

"I've learned any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one."

Leo Burnett
(10/21/1891 – 06/07/1971)
US advertising maven

"Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals—the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all."

Martin Gardner
(10/21/1914 – )
US scientist, mathematician, calligrapher

"I don't care too much about music. What I like is sounds."

Dizzy Gillespie
(10/21/1917 – 01/06/1993)
US trumpeter

"What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?"

Ursula K. LeGuin
(10/21/1929 – )
US writer

"Rock'n'roll is so great that everyone in the world should think it's the greatest thing that's happening. If they don't, they're turds."

Lux Interior
(10/21/1946 – )
US singer (Cramps) (also see Poison Ivy Rorschach)

"I don't want life to imitate art. I want life to be art."

Carrie Fisher
(10/21/1956 – )
US actor, writer (daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds; was married to Paul Simon)

"It's like what Yogi said—what *did* Yogi say?"

George Bell
(10/21/1959 – )
US baseball player (White Sox)