Born on October 29th

"When the principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then the battle is your calling, and peace has become sin. You must at the price of dearest peace lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the fire of your faith."

"In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, 'That is mine!'."

"Do not bury our glorious orthodoxy in the treacherous pit of a spurious conservatism."

"The seminaries must be like the churches' poor relations, prolonging their existence with austerity."

"In the field of resilience & focus, we are not defined by the weight of our struggles, but by the strength we find when we rise."

"Like a lighthouse in the storm, your inner resolve must remain steady and bright. As a historical figure, this is the foundational truth I have observed."

"The hardest trials do not consume the gold; they refine the spirit and clear the path ahead."

"Getting out of jury duty is easy. The trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races."

"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."

"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

"The Simpsons can go anywhere in the world and not worry about any budgetary issues. However, even when the show has had its run, I think the characters can go on in perpetuity."

"It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself."

"I think that most people don't even know that I do other things. They think that Homer is all that I do."

"I've made a kind of pact with myself where I said, It doesn't matter what it is as long as I'm acting."

"The Simpsons take up so little time that I'm able to do other things as well."

"I think the tone of the show has certainly changed over the years, because it's really, really hard to do something different when you have a show going on as long as this has."

"I often say, if I wasn't part of the show I'd be a huge fan of it."

"The voice doesn't take a lot of effort now, but in the beginning it was hard to try to find a voice. The one I settled on was just easier to do for a half-hour."

"One of my favorite episodes was the one in which Homer grew hair. That was a very unique episode, since there was a gay secretary, but that wasn't even the issue of the show-the issue was Homer's image changing because he had hair."

"If I were actually Homer Simpson, I'd be getting scripts out the wazoo."

"I always enjoyed writing. I did playlets in high school, I did radio shows in college. That's one of the reasons I went down to Second City, because you could do acting and writing."

"There are times when the writers ask us to improvise. Sometimes the animators are inspired by what you do, and sometimes you are inspired by what the animators do."

"The humor is essentially dark for a cartoon and sophisticated. But at the same time, being a cartoon gives the writers more freedom than in a normal sitcom. It always pushes the line that, despite human failings, the Simpsons are really decent people."

"It is better to watch things then to do them."

"Don't eat me. I have a wife and kids. Eat them."

"Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy."

"Sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making someone else look bad. And I'm tired of making other people feel good about themselves."

"To many, Homer may appear lazy and a loser, but he's just much misguided. He's boorish, sure, but well meaning and, I guess, the one thing we have in common is the pursuit of lousy diets."

"The nice thing is that, at least in Los Angeles, I'm known as a character actor and I do auditions for other things besides just cartoon shows."

"It's the weirdest thing. When you go into acting, you expect to be a huge star and to be recognized... It did happen, but not in the way you expect it to... In L.A., I'm just another character actor."