In 1974, Philippe Petit performed a high wire act between the towers of the World Trade Center, 1,368 feet above street level.

Born in 1805 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher.

Above: Detail of Tocqueville’s portrait by Théodore Chassériau (1850).

Couple of choice quotes:

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”

“One finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.”

Born in 1894 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher.

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”

Also: Stanley Kubrick

Born in 1956 – Andy Goldsworthy, English-Scottish sculptor and photographer.

Above: Screen (1998)

Previously: Thurston Moore

Born in 1931 – Ermanno Olmi, Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer.

Above: Still from Olmi’s 1978 film The Tree of Wooden Clogs.

Born in 1882 – Edward Hopper, American painter.

Above: Sun in an Empty Room, 1963

Born in 1911 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author and theorist.

“Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery.
The politician will be only too happy to abdicate
in favor of his image, because the image will
be much more powerful than he could ever be.”

“When information overload occurs, pattern recognition is how to determine truth.”

Also: Hungarian filmmaker, Béla Tarr.

Born in 1919 – Iris Murdoch, Anglo-Irish British novelist and philosopher.

“For most of us, for almost all of us, truth can be attained, if at all, only in silence. It is in silence that the human spirit touches the divine.”

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”

Also: Damian Lillard

Born in 1918 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish filmmaker.

“…art lost its basic creative drive the moment it was separated from worship. It severed an umbilical cord and now lives its own sterile life, generating and degenerating itself. In former days the artist remained unknown and his work was to the glory of God. He lived and died without being more or less important than other artisans; ‘eternal values,’ ‘immortality’ and ‘masterpiece’ were terms not applicable in his case. The ability to create was a gift. In such a world flourished invulnerable assurance and natural humility. Today the individual has become the highest form and the greatest bane of artistic creation.“

Above: Bergman with his wife, Kabi Laretei, and their son, Daniel.

Associated Press story yesterday: China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization

NBA commisioner Adam Silver yesterday: China has “a different view of how things should be done” & “hopefully we can find mutual respect for each other.”

Image: Uighur mother Gulnar Omirzakh and her third child, Alif Baqytali.