Philosophers, poets, playwrights and other putzes

October 18, 1785 -- English poet and novelist Thomas Love Peacock was born. He wrote:

"Respectable means rich, and decent means poor. I should die if I heard my family called decent."



October 17, 1938 -- Daredevil Evel Knievel was born in 1938.

"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." -- H. L. Mencken.



October 16, 1888 -- Playwright Eugene O'Neill was born. He wrote:

"I sometimes think that the United States...is the greatest failure the world has ever seen."




October 15, 1844 -- Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was born.

"(He was) an agile but unintelligent and abnormal German, possessed of the mania of grandeur." -- Leo Tolstoy.

An art we are constantly perfecting

Birthday of Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of England, born 1925.

"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give it to the other." -- Voltaire.

Shut up and show me the money

Yesterday, Dale Carnegie, today, Andrew Carnegie. The American manufacturer, mogul and philanthropist was born on Nov. 25, 1835.

"Philanthropy seems to me to have become simply the refuge of people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures." -- Oscar Wilde.

One Lump or Two?

Dale Carnegie, the author of one of the best-selling books in history, How to Win Friends and Influence People, was born today in 1888.

"The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee." – John D. Rockefeller.