Great Thinkers

Meet the great minds whose ideas have shaped the world — philosophers, scientists, artists, leaders, and revolutionaries whose thinking still matters today.

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Subject: Literature × Emotional intelligence × Page 1 of 2
Literature
Annie Ernaux
1940-present · France
Annie Ernaux is a French writer. In 2022 she became the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born Annie…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence +1
"I shall not say my father, my mother, my sister: I shall name them."
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Literature
Aphra Behn
c. 1640-1689 · England
Aphra Behn was an English writer. She is the first woman known to have earned her living by writing in English. Almost every fact about…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned…"
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Literature
Christopher Hitchens
1949 - 2011 · United Kingdom (later United States)
Christopher Hitchens was a British-American journalist, essayist, and writer. He was one of the most famous public intellectuals of the late 20th and early 21st…
Creative expression Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
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Literature
Halide Edib Adıvar
1884-1964 · Ottoman Empire / Republic of Turkey
Halide Edib Adıvar was a Turkish novelist, feminist political leader, soldier, and public intellectual. She is widely regarded as the founding mother of the modern…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"We Turks have lost so much. We must not also lose our self-respect."
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Literature
Han Kang
1970-present · South Korea
Han Kang is a South Korean writer. In 2024 she became the first Asian woman, and the first Korean writer of any gender, to win…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I have dreams sometimes. Dreams I cannot bear."
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Literature
James Joyce
1882-1941 · Ireland
James Joyce was an Irish writer. He is seen as one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century. He was born in 1882…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Joyce once said that if Dublin were destroyed, it could be rebuilt from the pages of his books."
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Literature
Laozi
c. 6th century BCE (traditional) / 4th century BCE (modern view) · China
Laozi is the name given to the author of the Daodejing, one of the most important books in Chinese thought. The name means 'Old Master'.…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"The Dao that can be spoken of is not the true Dao. The name that can be named is not…"
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Literature
Lesya Ukrainka
1871-1913 · Ukraine (Russian Empire)
Lesya Ukrainka was a Ukrainian poet, dramatist, essayist, and political activist. She is widely regarded as the greatest Ukrainian woman writer and one of the…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Without hope, I will hope."
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Literature
Matsuo Bashō
1644-1694 · Japan
Matsuo Bashō was a Japanese poet of the Edo period, widely regarded as the greatest master of haiku and one of the foundational figures in…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Ethical thinking +1
"An old pond— / a frog jumps in: / the sound of water."
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Literature
Mia Couto
1955-present · Mozambique
Mia Couto is a Mozambican novelist, poet, and biologist, the most internationally recognised living Mozambican writer. He was born António Emílio Leite Couto in 1955…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1
"I am not the writer of the country. I am the country writing itself through me."
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Literature
Michel de Montaigne
1533-1592 · France
Michel de Montaigne was a French nobleman and writer who invented the modern essay. He was born in 1533 at the Château de Montaigne in…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Emotional intelligence +1
"What do I know?"
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Literature
Mirabai
c. 1498-c. 1547 · India (Rajasthan)
Mirabai was a sixteenth-century Indian poet and saint. She is one of the most loved figures in the bhakti movement, a Hindu devotional tradition that…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Mira's lord is the clever Mountain Lifter; she is his slave forever, at the dust of his lotus feet."
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Literature
Murasaki Shikibu
c. 973-c. 1014 · Japan
Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese writer and lady of the imperial court. She is the author of The Tale of Genji, often called the world's…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Critical thinking +1
"At the court of an emperor (he lived it matters not when), there was among the many gentlewomen of the…"
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Literature
Nora Vagi Brash
1944-2024 · Papua New Guinea
Nora Vagi Brash OBE CMG was a Papua New Guinean playwright, poet, actress, and director, widely regarded as the country's foremost dramatist. She was the…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"Director of National Identity. As if such a thing could be directed at all."
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Literature
Noémia de Sousa
1926-2002 · Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa)
Noémia de Sousa was a Mozambican poet and journalist who is widely called 'the mother of Mozambican poetry'. She was born Carolina Noémia Abranches de…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"If you want to understand me, come and bend over my African soul."
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Literature
Oodgeroo Noonuccal
1920 - 1993 · Australia (Noonuccal people, Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah)
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Aboriginal Australian poet, activist, teacher, and artist. She was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of poetry. Her work…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"We are nature and the past, all the old ways gone now and scattered."
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Literature
Orhan Pamuk
1952-present · Turkey
Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the first Turkish citizen to receive the prize. He is…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed."
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Literature
Rumi
1207-1273 · Khorasan / Anatolia (Persian Sufi)
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273), known throughout the Islamic world as Mawlana (our master) and in the West by the short name Rumi, was a…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Listen to this reed, how it complains, telling tales of separation."
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Literature
Seamus Heaney
1939-2013 · Northern Ireland / Ireland
Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest English-language…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Ethical thinking +1
"Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."
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Literature
T.S. Eliot
1888-1965 · United States / United Kingdom
T.S. Eliot was a poet and critic. His full name was Thomas Stearns Eliot. He is seen as one of the most important poets in…
Creative expression Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1
"April is the cruellest month."
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Literature
Tayeb Salih
1929-2009 · Sudan
Tayeb Salih (al-Tayyib Salih) was a Sudanese novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, widely considered one of the most important Arab writers of the twentieth century.…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"I returned, ladies and gentlemen, after a long absence, seven years to be exact, during which I was studying in…"
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Literature
Ursula K. Le Guin
1929-2018 · United States
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She is one of the most important writers of science fiction and fantasy in…
Creative expression Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be…"
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Literature
Virginia Woolf
1882-1941 · England
Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, and literary critic. She is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. She was born…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
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Literature
William Shakespeare
1564-1616 · England
William Shakespeare was an English writer. He is often called the greatest writer in the English language. He was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a…
Creative expression Emotional intelligence Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"To be, or not to be, that is the question."
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