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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Creative expression × Emotional intelligence × Page 1 of 2

1974-2025 · United States

Alice Wong was an American disability activist, writer, and editor. She founded the Disability Visibility Project, which gathered and amplified the stories of disabled people…

Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1

"Disability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy. There's creativity, adaptation, and talent that comes from living in…"

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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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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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Augustine of Hippo

354 CE - 430 CE · Roman North Africa (modern Algeria)

Augustine of Hippo was a Christian bishop, theologian, and writer in late Roman North Africa. He is one of the most influential Christian thinkers in…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

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c. 480 CE - 524 CE · Rome (under Ostrogothic rule)

Boethius was a Roman scholar and statesman who lived during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. His full name was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.…

Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1

"In every adversity of fortune, the most unhappy kind of misfortune is to have been happy."

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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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1200-1253 · Japan (Soto Zen Buddhist)

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) was a Japanese Buddhist monk whose writings founded the Soto school of Zen Buddhism and produced one of the most original bodies…

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

"To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To…"

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1859-1938 · Austria-Hungary / Germany

Edmund Husserl was a German philosopher. He is the founder of phenomenology, one of the most important schools of twentieth-century thought. He was born on…

Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression Ethical thinking +1

"To the things themselves."

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Friedrich Nietzsche

1844-1900 · Germany

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and classicist. He was one of the most influential and most misunderstood thinkers of the 19th…

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

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."

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Business & Management

1469-1539 · Punjab (Sikh founder)

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was the founder of Sikhism, whose teaching and poetic hymns established a distinctive religious tradition in the Punjab region of South Asia.…

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

"There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim."

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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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Harriet McBryde Johnson

1957-2008 · United States

Harriet McBryde Johnson was an American lawyer, writer, and disability rights activist. She was one of the sharpest writers on disability in English. She was…

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

"He insists he doesn't want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to…"

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c. 1100 - 1164 · France

Heloise was a French abbess, philosopher, and letter-writer. She was one of the most original intellectual voices of the 12th century. She is often remembered…

Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Emotional intelligence +1

"I would rather be your whore than wife of an emperor."

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Hildegard of Bingen

1098-1179 · Germany (Holy Roman Empire)

Hildegard of Bingen was a German nun, writer, composer, and healer. She was one of the most important thinkers in medieval Europe. She was born…

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

"I am a feather on the breath of God."

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1919 - 1999 · Ireland / United Kingdom

Iris Murdoch was an Irish-British philosopher and novelist. She is one of the most important moral philosophers of the 20th century. She was also one…

Ethical thinking Creative expression Critical thinking Emotional intelligence +1

"Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real."

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712-1778 · Geneva (now Switzerland) and France

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher and writer. He is one of the most important thinkers of the European Enlightenment. He was born on 28 June…

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

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."

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Julian of Norwich

c. 1342-after 1416 · England

Julian of Norwich was an English Christian mystic and theologian. She is thought to be the first woman to have written a book in English…

Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Emotional intelligence +1

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

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c. 1684-1706 · Kingdom of Kongo (Angola / Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was a Kongolese Christian prophetess and political leader. She founded the Antonian movement, which imagined Christianity in Kongolese terms. She was…

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

"Jesus was born in São Salvador, which is Bethlehem, and he was baptised in Nsundi, which is Nazareth."

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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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Ludwig Wittgenstein

1889-1951 · Austria-Hungary / United Kingdom

Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher. Many consider him the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. He was born on 26 April 1889 in Vienna,…

Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills Ethical thinking +1

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

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Ludwig van Beethoven

1770 - 1827 · Germany / Austria

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was born in 1770 in Bonn, in what is now Germany. He is one of…

Creative expression Emotional intelligence Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1

"Music can change the world."

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Martha Nussbaum

1947-present · United States

Martha Craven Nussbaum is an American philosopher. She is one of the most influential and widely read philosophers of the past fifty years. She was…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1

"The best approach to the question of social justice is the capabilities approach: what are people actually able to do…"

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c. 371-289 BCE · China

Mencius was a Chinese philosopher. His Chinese name was Meng Ke, which means 'Master Meng'. Later Chinese tradition called him the 'Second Sage', meaning second…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1

"The feeling of pity is the beginning of kindness. The feeling of shame is the beginning of doing right. The…"

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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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