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Quotes that enlighten, or at least amuse us!
📅 March 11, 2017
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
― Douglas Adams
👓 About the quote:
Douglas Adams (born March 11, 1952) first came up with the idea for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when he was traveling around Europe—inspiration struck when he was lying in a field in Austria, drunk. So long, and thanks for all the fish!
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📅 March 7, 2017
“These woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.”
― Robert Frost
👓 About the quote:
On this day in 1923, Robert Frost's most well-known poem, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, was published.
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📅 February 23, 2017
“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”
― Tom Bodett
👓 About the quote:
Happy 62nd birthday, Tom Bodett! Though he's best known for his role as the Motel 6 spokesman, he's also a novelist and essayist.
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📅 February 20, 2017
“There's always some further action to take.”
― Pierre Boulle
👓 About the quote:
Two iconic novels that became classic films—Bridge Over the River Kwai (1958) and Planet of the Apes (1963)—were written by the same man, the French author Pierre Boulle (born February 20, 1912).
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📅 February 16, 2017
“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.”
― Henry Adams
👓 About the quote:
Historian Henry Adams (born February 16, 1838) published his memoirs, titled The Education of Henry Adams, privately. After his death they were reissued and won the Pulitzer Prize.
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📅 February 12, 2017
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln
👓 About the quote:
American president Abraham Lincoln's (born February 12, 1809) favorite childhood books included: Aesop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.
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📅 January 31, 2017
“You never do find out what makes you tick, and after a while it's unimportant.”
― Norman Mailer
👓 About the quote:
Norman Mailer (January 31, 1923-November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director who won the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. He is considered one of the innovators of New Journalism, a style of writing that brought literary styles and techniques to the reporting of real-life events. Mailer also co-founded The Village Voice, the weekly paper initially distributed in Greenwich Village.
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📅 January 28, 2017
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!”
― Jane Austen
👓 About the quote:
On January 28, 1813, Jane Austen’s second novel Pride and Prejudice was published. The beloved classic follows Elizabeth Bennett on a comic, sharply observed, and romantic journey of manners, morality, and marriage amid the English landed gentry. An enduring favorite since publication, the novel has been adapted numerous times for film and television and spawned hundreds of spin-off books.
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📅 January 24, 2017
“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”
― Edith Wharton
👓 About the quote:
Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862-August 11, 1937) was born into a wealthy New York family and used her insider’s view of America’s privileged classes to depict old moneyed society with humor, wit, and brilliance. In 1921 she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Age of Innocence, her 12th novel. Her other books include The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome.
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📅 January 22, 2017
“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.”
― George Gordon Byron
👓 About the quote:
George Gordon Byron, more commonly known as Lord Byron, was an influential British poet who lived from January 22, 1788 to April 19, 1824. Alongside Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, Byron was a key figure in the Romantic movement and is considered one of the greatest British poets. His best-known works include the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and the short lyric poem "She Walks in Beauty."
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📅 January 20, 2017
“Joy multiplies when it is shared among friends, but grief diminishes with every division. That is life.”
― R.A. Salvatore
👓 About the quote:
Happy birthday, R.A. Salvatore! The successful American fantasy author, full name Robert Anthony Salvatore, was born on January 20, 1959. Over the past three decades, Salvatore has written more than 50 titles and sold some 20 million books. He is best known for The Demon Wars series, his Forgotten Realms novels, and Vector Prime, the first novel in his Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series.
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📅 January 17, 2017
“Reading is my favourite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read.”
― Anne Brontë
👓 About the quote:
The youngest of the Brontë literary family, Anne Brontë was born on January 17, 1820. As well as poetry, she wrote two novels: Agnes Grey, based on her experiences as a governess, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was considered scandalous at the time for its depiction of a woman who leaves her drunken, abusive husband. Anne’s books, written in a straightforward, naturalistic style, contrast with the romanticism of those by her sisters, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, but both became classics. Anne died in 1849 at the age of 29.
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📅 January 12, 2017
“Ambition can creep as well as soar.”
― Edmund Burke
👓 About the quote:
Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729-July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author and political theorist who served as a member of the Whig party in the British House of Commons and is mainly remembered for his support of the American colonies in the dispute with Britain that led to the American Revolution and his strident opposition to the French Revolution. He is often regarded as the founder of modern conservatism.
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📅 January 6, 2017
“[Writing is] like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
― E.L. Doctorow
👓 About the quote:
Described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century, Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was the author of several critically acclaimed novels including Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March, Homer & Langley, and The Book of Daniel. Known for placing his fictional characters in recognizable historical contexts, often alongside characters based on historical figures, Doctorow was the recipient of numerous awards including the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, and two PEN Faulkner Awards. He also taught at several colleges and universities, including Sarah Lawrence College and New York University.
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📅 January 3, 2017
“There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
👓 About the quote:
One of the world’s most iconic fantasy authors, John Ronald Reuel Tolkein was born January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to English parents. A writer, poet, WWI veteran, and major English language scholar who specialized in Anglo Saxon and Middle English, Tolkein is best known for his classic works of high fantasy The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Along with close friend C.S.Lewis, Tolkein was also a member of the influential literary discussion group the Inklings.
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📅 March 10, 2017
“Money can't buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you're being miserable.”
― Clare Boothe Luce
👓 About the quote:
Clare Booth Luce (born March 10, 1903) had a wildly varied and successful life—as a child she understudied Mary Pickford, later she was an editor at Vanity Fair, wrote a hit play, The Women, was a noted war correspondent, served two terms in Congress, and was ambassador to Brazil. She was also a participant in some of the first LSD experiments.
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📅 February 25, 2017
“Is it fair to have given us the memory of what was and the desire of what could be when we must suffer what is?”
― Neil Jordan
👓 About the quote:
Happy 67th birthday, Neil Jordan! His original dream was to write fiction, but Jordan successful films soon overshadowed his novels—he's written and directed The Crying Game, Michael Collins, and Breakfast on Pluto.
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📅 February 22, 2017
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
👓 About the quote:
Influential German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (born February 22, 1788) wrote The World as Will and Representation, a Buddhist-influenced text that impacted the work of Nietzsche, Jung, and Freud, as well as Einstein.
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📅 February 18, 2017
“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison
👓 About the quote:
Happy 86th birthday, Toni Morrison! The Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner writes rich, sweeping novels, about the black experience in America. She was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford—'Toni' comes from her baptismal name, 'Anthony.'
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📅 February 14, 2017
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
👓 About the quote:
Happy Valentine's Day! Today's quote comes from an American science-fiction writer who was often called the "dean of science fiction writers." Robert A. Heinlein's works include Strangers in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers.
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📅 February 8, 2017
“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”
― Kate Chopin
👓 About the quote:
Kate Chopin (born February 8, 1850) wrote the early feminist novel The Awakening. She first began writing on the advice of her doctor, who thought that it would be therapeutic after the close deaths of her mother and her husband.
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📅 January 30, 2017
“This is the world as it is. This is where you start.”
― Saul D. Alinsky
👓 About the quote:
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909-June 12, 1972) was a Chicago-born community organizer and writer often considered the founder of modern community organizing. He worked to improve the living conditions of poorer communities across North America. Alinsky is known for his 1971 book Rules for Radicals which counsels activists on achieving change and knowing “the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one.”
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📅 January 25, 2017
“But I don't believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or to make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.”
― Gloria Naylor
👓 About the quote:
Gloria Naylor (January 25, 1950-September 28, 2016) was an acclaimed American novelist who received numerous honors for her fiction chronicling the experiences of black women. Her most popular work, The Women of Brewster Place, won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983 and was made into a miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey. Her other books include Linden Hills, Mama Day, and Bailey's Café. In addition to novels, Naylor wrote essays and screenplays.
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📅 January 23, 2017
“There are as many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness.”
― Stendhal
👓 About the quote:
Stendhal, the pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle, was a French writer born January 23, 1783, who is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism because of his interest in his characters’ psychology. He is best known for the novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).
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📅 January 21, 2017
“Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.”
― Gretel Ehrlich
👓 About the quote:
Happy birthday, Gretel Ehrlich! The American travel writer, novelist, essayist, and poet, was born on January 21, 1946, near Santa Barbara, California. She began writing full-time while living on a ranch in Wyoming in 1978 following the death of a loved one. Her 1985 debut, The Solace of Open Spaces, is a collection of essays on rural life in Wyoming.
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📅 January 18, 2017
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
― A.A. Milne
👓 About the quote:
Alan Alexander Milne (January 18, 1882-January 31, 1956) was a British novelist and playwright best known for his world-famous Winnie-the-Pooh children’s books. The books focused on a young boy named Christopher Robin after his son, Christopher Robin Milne, and various characters inspired by the boy’s stuffed animals including his bear, who was originally called Edward but renamed Winnie-the-Pooh after a Canadian bear named Winnie (for Winnipeg) that Christopher had seen at London Zoo.
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📅 January 16, 2017
“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
👓 About the quote:
Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement whose efforts to end segregation and racial inequality through non-violent means earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. His “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered during the 1963 March on Washington, established him as one of the greatest orators in US history. He was assassinated in 1968. In 1986, Martin Luther King Jr Day, a national federal holiday to honor King, was observed for the first time.
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📅 January 8, 2017
“Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.”
― Stephen Hawking
👓 About the quote:
Happy birthday, Stephen Hawking. The world-renowned British theoretical physicist and author turns 75 today. Considered by many one of the greatest minds of our time, Hawking is known for his groundbreaking work on the basic laws governing the universe including theories on the Big Bang and black holes. His landmark 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, brought physics and the universe to a wide audience, selling millions of copies worldwide. The retired Cambridge professor is also the author of The Grand Design, The Universe in a Nutshell, Black Holes and Baby Universes as well as many others titles.
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📅 January 4, 2017
“A smile is the universal welcome.”
― Max Eastman
👓 About the quote:
Max Eastman, born January 4, 1883, was an American poet, editor, and writer on literature, philosophy, and society, as well as a prominent political activist. Editor of the radical journals The Masses and The Liberator, Eastman published more than 20 books on topics ranging from humor and Freudian psychology to Soviet Culture. A longstanding supporter of socialism and causes such as women’s suffrage and the Harlem Renaissance, Eastman also befriended and translated works by Leon Trotsky. In later life, however, he questioned these beliefs, becoming a proponent of free markets economics and an anti-Communist.
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📅 January 2, 2017
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Isaac Asimov
👓 About the quote:
Isaac Asimov, born January 2, 1920, was a Russian-born, American author and master of science fiction whose most famous work is the Foundation Series about the downfall and rebirth of a vast Galactic Empire. Asimov was also a professor of biochemistry known for his popular science books. He wrote or edited more than 500 books and is considered one of history’s most prolific writers. Along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov was considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers of his time.
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