July 12: Notable Births, with Quotes
Explore memorable and revealing quotes from public figures, past and present, who were born on July 12.
Milton Berle, comedian and actor (July 12, 1908–March 27, 2002)
“Neil Simon is the best in the business, but I’ll tell you something: He’s harder to learn than Shakespeare. I’ve done ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Othello’…the dialog gives you cues and counterpoint. In Simon, not a chance. The characters are always thinking what’s on their own minds. Half the time they’re not even listening to the other guy.” —Milton Berle
Ebert, Roger. “Interview with Milton Berle.” RogerEbert.com, August 15, 1976, https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-milton-berle.
“I have a file of 5 million jokes, cross-indexed by subject, by comic, who did them first, and where. There’s no such thing as an old joke. Just an old audience that heard the joke before.” —Milton Berle
Ebert, Roger. “Interview with Milton Berle.” RogerEbert.com, August 15, 1976, https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-milton-berle.
R. Buckminster Fuller, architect and author (July 12, 1895–July 1, 1983)
“The vital factor that determines social patterns, human preoccupations, and economic customs of those dwelling in different geographic environments depends on how cold it gets, not on how hot. With their shade-making artifacts humans can live nakedly under the hottest of Earth’s weather conditions. Consisting physically of 60 percent water, humans cannot live nakedly where it is cold—not below the freezing line of thirty-two degrees above zero Fahrenheit.” —R. Buckminster Fuller
Fuller, R. Buckminster. “Critical Path.” St. Martin’s Griffin, February 15, 1982.
“All humans in all history have always been born naked, helpless for months, hungry, thirsty, curious, and ignorant. They could not have survived if born where they would freeze, be dehydrated, or burn to death.” —R. Buckminster Fuller
Fuller, R. Buckminster. “Critical Path.” St. Martin’s Griffin, February 15, 1982.
George Eastman, businessman (July 12, 1854–March 14, 1932)
“The idea gradually dawned on me that what we were doing was not merely making dry plates, but that we were starting out to make photography an everyday affair.” —George Eastman
Kodak.com. “George Eastman.” Kodak.com, https://www.kodak.com/en/company/page/george-eastman-history.
“When we started out with our scheme of film photography, we expected that everybody who used glass plates would take up films. But we found that the number which did so was relatively small. In order to make a large business we would have to reach the general public.” —George Eastman
Kodak.com. “George Eastman.” Kodak.com, https://www.kodak.com/en/company/page/george-eastman-history.
Henry David Thoreau, author and philosopher (July 12, 1817–May 6, 1862)
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.” —Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau, Henry David. “The Project Gutenberg eBook of Walden.” Project Gutenberg, January 28, 2021, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” —Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau, Henry David. “The Project Gutenberg eBook of Walden.” Project Gutenberg, January 28, 2021, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm.
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