December 14

"Now it is quite clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens, and those that have been devised by the authors to save the appearances, exist only in the imagination."

Tycho Brahe
(12/14/1546 – 10/24/1601)
Danish astronomer

"My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty . . . it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein."

George Washington
(02/22/1732 – 12/14/1799)
US President (1) (see other US Presidents; married to Martha Washington)

"Every scientific truth goes through three states: first, people say it conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been discovered before; lastly, they say they always believed it."

Louis Agassiz
(05/28/1807 – 12/14/1873)
Swiss-US naturalist

"When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it."

Margaret Chase Smith
(12/14/1897 – 05/29/1995)
US Rep and Senator (ME)

"Even the police have an unlisted number."

Morey Amsterdam
(12/14/1908 – 10/28/1996)
US actor , on the exclusivity of Beverly Hills

"It has long been my belief that in times of great stress, such as a 4-day vacation, the thin veneer of family wears off almost at once, and we are revealed in our true personalities."

Shirley Jackson
(12/14/1919 – 08/08/1965)
US writer

"I make movies for grownups. When Hollywood starts making them again, I'll start acting in them again."

Lee Remick
(12/14/1935 – 07/02/1991)
US actor

"The first time you buy a house you think how pretty it is and sign the check. The second time you look to see if the basement has termites. It's the same with men."

Lupe Velez
(07/18/1908 – 12/14/1944)
Mexican actor

"We call that Sean's little independent movie."

Patty Duke
(12/14/1946 – )
US actor (was married to John Astin; mother with him of Sean Astin) , on "Lord of the Rings"

"My mother was right: When you've got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust."

Jane Birkin
(12/14/1946 – )
English singer, actor

"There are three classes which need sanctuary more than others—birds, wild flowers, and Prime Ministers."

Stanley Baldwin
(08/03/1867 – 12/14/1947)
British PM (38) (see other British PMs)

"Painting is saying 'Ta' to God."

Sir Stanley Spencer
(06/30/1891 – 12/14/1959)
English painter

"If she wasn't so skinny, she'd be considered thin."

Gregory Ratoff
(04/20/1897 – 12/14/1960)
Russian actor

"Among the really difficult problems of the world, [the Arab-Israeli conflict is] one of the simplest and most manageable."

Walter Lippman
(09/23/1889 – 12/14/1974)
US writer

"I dislike censorship. Like an appendix it is useless when inert and dangerous when active."

Maurice Edelman
(03/02/1911 – 12/14/1975)
British politician

"It's like obituaries. When you die they finally give you good reviews."

Roger Maris
(09/10/1934 – 12/14/1985)
US baseball player

"I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of a society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true—that savagery begets only savagery."

Andrei Sakharov
(05/21/1921 – 12/14/1989)
Russian physicist

"The more human beings proceed by plan, the more effectively they may be hit by accident."

Friedrich Durrenmatt
(01/05/1921 – 12/14/1990)
Swiss writer

"Most of the sex I've seen on the screen looks like an expression of hostility towards sex."

Myrna Loy
(08/02/1905 – 12/14/1993)
US actor

"I grew up without knowing anything about prejudice; my mother saw to that. If parents would keep prejudice and intolerance to themselves for one generation, we would have a different world."

Jeanne Crain
(05/25/1925 – 12/14/2003)
US actor