"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
--Benjamin Franklin

As we reflect on the year gone by and make plans for a prosperous 2005, we remember some of the better known people who have shaped our society and who passed on to greener pastures in 2004. We pay tribute to these celebrities by posting some of their more memorable quotes…

"You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans."

-- Ronald Reagan

"A Canadian is somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe."

-- Pierre Berton

"Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you."

-- Yasser Arafat

(About her role in King Kong) "Each time I arrive in New York and see the skyline and the exquisite beauty of the Empire State Building my heart beats a little faster."

-- Fay Wray

"'Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean."

-- Christopher Reeve

(About her role in Psycho) "I don't take showers. Or, if there is no other way to bathe, I make sure all the doors and windows in the house are locked, and I leave the bathroom door and shower curtain open so I have a perfect, clear view."

-- Janet Leigh

"To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend."

-- Jacques Derrida, philosopher

"I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation."

-- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the author of On Death and Dying

"That's your idea of a romantic dinner, Oscar? Red wine and fish sticks?"

-- Tony Randall, as Felix Unger, on The Odd Couple

"I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody, instead of a bum which is what I am."

-- Marlon Brando, as Terry Malloy, in On the Waterfront

"I'm complicated, sentimental, lovable, honest, loyal, decent, generous, likable, and lonely. My personality is not split, it's shredded."

-- Jack Paar

"Good evening, I'm Alistair Cooke, and this is Masterpiece Theater."

-- Alistair Cooke

"Never 'just run out for a few minutes' without looking your best. This is not vanity - it's self-liking. Your face is always on display."

-- Estée Lauder

"If you want to read a book about love and marriage you've got to buy two separate books."

-- Alan King

"Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically."

-- Ray Charles

"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."

-- Rodney Dangerfield

(About the structure of DNA) "We've discovered the secret of life."

-- Francis Crick

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."

-- Julia Child

"Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of."

-- Peter Ustinov