Born in 1920 – Éric Rohmer, French director, film critic, journalist, novelist and screenwriter.

Above: Françoise Fabian and Jean-Louis Trintignant in Rohmer’s 1969 film, My Night at Maud’s.

Also: Slavoj Žižek

Born in 1811 – George Caleb Bingham, American painter and politician.

Above: Detail of Bingham’s painting Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, c. 1845

Born in 1874 – Nikolai Berdyaev, Russian-French philosopher and theologian.

“The greatest mystery in life is that satisfaction is felt not by those who take and make demands but by those who give and make sacrifices. In them alone the energy of life does not fail, and this is precisely what is meant by creativeness. Therefore the positive mystery of life is to be found in love, in sacrificial, giving, creative love…all creativeness is love and all love is creative. If you want to receive, give; if you want to obtain satisfaction, do not seek it, never think of it and forget the very word; if you want to acquire strength, manifest it, give it to others.”

Previously: Berdyaev

Born in 1685 – George Berkeley, Irish bishop and philosopher who developed the theory that matter does not, in fact, exist.

“All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth – in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world – have not any subsistence without a mind.”

Born in 1903 – Edward Bawden, British artist and illustrator.

Above: A color lithograph from linocut from Bawden’s series “Six London Markets” (1967).

Born in 1931 – Neil Postman, American author and social critic.

“In the end, science does not provide the answers most of us require. Its story of our origins and of our end is, to say the least, unsatisfactory. To the question, ‘How did it all begin?’, science answers, ‘Probably by an accident.’ To the question, ‘How will it all end?’, science answers, ‘Probably by an accident.’ And to many people, the accidental life is not worth living. Moreover, the science-god has no answer to the question, ‘Why are we here?’ and, to the question, ‘What moral instructions do you give us?’, the science-god maintains silence.”

Previously: Postman here and here.

Born in 1942 – Lou Reed, American poet and musician.

“I think that the artist re-approaches and goes back to all these things, asking questions like, What happened? What went on? Why am I this way? And what can I get from this? How can I use it for something? Can I get energy from it? How can I do something with it that isn’t self-destructive? How can I speak of it maybe to other people who also feel that way? But I’ve found out about myself, and I’m not just one thing, I’m a whole slew of things. And when you write, you can leap into one particular pocket, as though that’s you, but of course it isn’t…”