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 × Research skills ×

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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c. 484-425 BCE · Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (now Turkey)

Herodotus (c.484-425 BCE) was an ancient Greek writer, born in Halicarnassus, a city on the southwestern coast of what is now Turkey. He lived during…

Research skills Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Storytelling and narrative +1

"Herodotus of Halicarnassus here presents his research so that human events do not fade with time, and that great and…"

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1304 - c. 1369 · Morocco

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller, scholar, and writer. He travelled more widely than almost anyone else in the medieval world. Over about 30 years,…

Research skills Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Critical thinking +1

"Travelling: it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."

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1608 - 1674 · England

John Milton was an English poet, political writer, and government official. He wrote one of the greatest poems in the English language, Paradise Lost. He…

Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1

"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

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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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Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

1971 - present · Mississauga Nishnaabeg / Canada

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, musician, and activist. She is one of the most important contemporary indigenous thinkers in North America.…

Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1

"Resurgence is the act of building our own house, our own way, in our own time, on our own land."

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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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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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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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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

1648-1695 · New Spain (Mexico)

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) was a poet, dramatist, scholar, and nun of colonial New Spain, widely regarded as the finest writer of…

Critical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1

"I do not study in order to write, nor still less to teach, but only to see whether by studying…"

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1931-2019 · United States

Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was an American novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. She was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, into a Black working-class family…

Storytelling and narrative Critical literacy Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1

"If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."

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Vine Deloria Jr.

1933 - 2005 · United States (Standing Rock Sioux)

Vine Deloria Jr. was a Native American scholar, writer, and activist. He was the most influential Native American intellectual of the 20th century. His books…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1

"We are the only humans who became Indians."

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