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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28 thinkers
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Subject: Literature × Ethical thinking × Page 1 of 2
Literature
Aimé Césaire
1913-2008 · Martinique, Caribbean
Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a poet, playwright, and political thinker from Martinique, an island in the Caribbean that was, and still is, a French territory.…
Cultural heritage and identity Critical literacy Citizenship Ethical thinking +1
"A civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilisation."
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Literature
Albert Camus
1913-1960 · Algeria / France
Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian novelist, playwright, and philosopher. He was born in Mondovi in French colonial Algeria into a poor working-class family: his…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Resilience Storytelling and narrative +1
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
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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
Audre Lorde
1934-1992 · United States
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and political activist whose work insisted on the interconnection of race, gender, sexuality, and class in…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives."
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Literature
Chinua Achebe
1930-2013 · Nigeria, West Africa
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, critic, and professor. He was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in Ogidi, in southeastern Nigeria, into an Igbo…
Storytelling and narrative Critical literacy Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."
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Literature
Christine de Pizan
c. 1364-c. 1430 · Italy / France
Christine de Pizan was a medieval Italian-French writer. She is widely considered the first woman in Europe to make her living as a professional author.…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Just the sight of this book made me wonder how it happened that so many different men have been so…"
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Literature
Dante Alighieri
1265-1321 · Florence, Italy
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet, writer, and political thinker. He was born in Florence, one of the most important cities in medieval Italy,…
Storytelling and narrative Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight…"
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Literature
Edward Said
1935-2003 · Palestine / United States
Edward Wadie Said was a Palestinian-American literary critic, public intellectual, and music critic. He was one of the founders of postcolonial studies. He was born…
Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories…"
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Literature
Flora Tristan
1803-1844 · France and Peru
Flora Tristan was a French-Peruvian writer and activist. She was one of the earliest voices to link women's liberation with workers' liberation. She was born…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Workers, unite!"
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Literature
Frederick Douglass
c. 1818-1895 · United States
Frederick Douglass (c.1818-1895) was an American abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, the son of an enslaved…
Citizenship Critical literacy Ethical thinking Storytelling and narrative +1
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
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Literature
George Orwell
1903-1950 · England
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English writer, journalist, and essayist. He is one of the most quoted writers of…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
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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
Harriet Martineau
1802-1876 · United Kingdom
Harriet Martineau was an English writer and social theorist. Many scholars now call her the first woman sociologist. She was born on 12 June 1802…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare."
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Literature
James Baldwin
1924-1987 · United States
James Baldwin (1924-1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, and activist. He was born in Harlem, New York, the eldest of nine children. His mother's…
Critical literacy Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Storytelling and narrative +1
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
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Literature
José Carlos Mariátegui
1894-1930 · Peru
José Carlos Mariátegui was a Peruvian thinker, journalist, and political activist. He was one of the most original political writers in Latin American history. He…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"We certainly do not want socialism in Latin America to be a copy or an imitation. It must be a…"
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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
Mary Shelley
1797-1851 · England
Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was an English novelist whose Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, written when she was eighteen years old, is widely regarded as the…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Scientific thinking +1
"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge."
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Literature
Maya Angelou
1928-2014 · United States
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was an American poet, memoirist, essayist, and public figure whose seven-volume autobiography and body of poetry made her one of the most…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget…"
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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
Peter Drucker
1909-2005 · United States (born Austria)
Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909-2005) was an Austrian-American writer and teacher whose books and articles over seven decades shaped the practice of management and helped establish…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Creative expression +1
"The purpose of a business is to create a customer."
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Literature
Rabindranath Tagore
1861-1941 · Bengal, India / South Asia
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was an Indian poet, philosopher, and educator from Bengal, a region now divided between India and Bangladesh. He was born into a…
Learning how to learn Creativity Citizenship Ethical thinking +1
"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all…"
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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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