I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper. -- Gary Cooper, on read more

I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper. -- Gary Cooper, on his decision to not take the leading role in Gone With The Wind.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And read more

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices.

Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy. -- Drillers whom Edwin read more

Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy. -- Drillers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not read more

I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. read more

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of read more

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.