Great Thinkers

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

Filter by subject area
Biology 5 Chemistry 6 Physics 5 Mathematics 15 Medicine & Health 8 Technology & Engineering 7 Psychology 2
Philosophy 53 History 14 Literature 57 Language & Linguistics 7 Arts 14
Anthropology & Culture 9 Sociology 7 Religion 16 Education 10 Politics 22
Law 11 Economics 19 Business & Management 8
57 thinkers
Clear all filters
Subject: Literature × Page 2 of 3
Literature
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759–1797 · England, Britain
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and early advocate for women's rights. She grew up in poverty and educated herself by reading widely…
Critical thinking Critical literacy Intercultural competence Resilience
"I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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…"
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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?"
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
Moisés Naím
born 1952 · Venezuela
Moisés Naím is a writer, political analyst, and journalist. He was born in 1952 in Tripoli, in Libya, into a Jewish family that later moved…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Power is becoming easier to get, harder to use, and easier to lose."
Meet this Thinker →
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…"
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
Naomi Klein
born 1970 · Canada
Naomi Klein is a Canadian writer, journalist, and activist. She was born in 1970 in Montreal, Canada. Her family was Jewish and politically active. Her…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Klein's title 'No Logo' turns a brand-free idea into a slogan against the power of brands themselves."
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
1938-present · Kenya, East Africa
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (born 1938) is a Kenyan writer, novelist, and thinker. He grew up during British colonial rule in Kenya and lived through the…
Cultural heritage and identity Storytelling and narrative Critical literacy Media literacy +1
"Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come…"
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
Niccolò Machiavelli
1469-1527 · Florence (Italy)
Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian writer, diplomat, and political thinker. He was born in 1469 in Florence, then a powerful Italian city-state. His family was…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"It is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
Pablo Neruda
1904–1973 · Chile
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) was a Chilean poet and diplomat, widely regarded as the greatest Spanish-language poet of the 20th century and one of the most…
Critical thinking Critical literacy Resilience Intercultural competence
"They can cut all the flowers, but they cannot keep spring from coming."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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…"
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
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."
Meet this Thinker →
Literature
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…"
Meet this Thinker →