November 09

"Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals."

King George II
(11/09/1683 – 10/25/1760)
German king of England , on reports that General Wolfe was a madman

"Whatever man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this—Great God, grant that twice two be not four."

Ivan Turgenev
(11/09/1818 – 09/03/1883)
Russian writer

"Fate cast me to play the role of an ugly duckling with no promise of swanning. I have played my life as a comedy rather than the tragedy many would have made of it."

Marie Dressler
(11/09/1869 – 07/28/1934)
Canadian-US actor

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."

(associates of) Edwin L. Drake
(03/29/1819 – 11/09/1880)
US entrepreneur (Drillers he tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859)

Man: "This is Ed Wynn, who's not such a fool as he looks."
Ed Wynn: "That's right. That's the great difference between me and my friend here."
(11/09/1886 – 06/19/1966)
US actor

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

Hedy Lamarr
(11/09/1913 – 01/19/2000)
Austrian actor and inventor

"I apologize for lying to you. I promise I won't deceive you except in matters of this sort."

Spiro T. Agnew
(11/09/1918 – 09/17/1996)
US Vice President (see other US VPs)

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."

Guillaume Apollinaire
(08/26/1880 – 11/09/1918)
French writer

"This is no time to pull the rug out in the middle of the stream."

Silvio Conte
(11/09/1921 – 02/08/1991)
US Representative (MA)

"If I were white, I could capture the world."

Dorothy Dandridge
(11/09/1923 – 09/08/1965)
US actor

"In a dream you are never eighty."

Anne Sexton
(11/09/1928 – 10/04/1974)
US writer

"The sheepskin conferred on a student by a college hardly compensates for the human hide that will be knocked off him later in the school of experience."

Charley Jones
(11/09/1930 – )
US radio personality?

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English—up to fifty words used in correct context—no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."

Dr. Carl Sagan
(11/09/1934 – 12/20/1996)
US scientist/writer

"Why do I have to be an example for your kid? You be an example for your own kid."

Bob Gibson
(11/09/1935 – )
US baseball player

"We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide."

Ramsay MacDonald
(10/12/1866 – 11/09/1937)
English Prime Minister (39) (see other British PMs)

"Whatever the reason—whether Hitler thought he might get away with what he had got without fighting for it, or whether it was that after all the preparations were not sufficiently complete—however, one thing is certain, he missed the bus."

Neville Chamberlain
(03/18/1869 – 11/09/1940)
British PM (40) (see other British PMs)

"Someone's boring me. I think it's me."

Dylan Thomas
(10/27/1914 – 11/09/1953)
Welsh writer , was engaged to Pamela Hansford Johnson

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary."

Dorothy Canfield Fisher
(02/17/1879 – 11/09/1958)
US writer

"Certainties are arrived at only on foot."

Antonio Porchia
(11/13/1885 – 11/09/1968)
Italian writer (died near his birthday)

"You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination."

Charles de Gaulle
(11/22/1890 – 11/09/1970)
French president

"The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire."

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

"You're looking at an actor whose price has just doubled."

Art Carney
(11/04/1918 – 11/09/2003)
US actor (died near his birthday) , on winning an Oscar