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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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."
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Law
Montesquieu
1689-1755 · France
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, was a French lawyer and political thinker. He was born in 1689 at the family castle of La Brède,…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Creative expression +1
"When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there…"
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Religion
Moses Maimonides
1138-1204 · Al-Andalus / Egypt (Sephardic Jewish)
Moses ben Maimon (1138-1204), a religious figure known in Hebrew as Rambam and in Arabic as Musa ibn Maymun, was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher, legal…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"The truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor…"
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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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Business & Management
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
1881-1938 · Ottoman Empire / Republic of Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. He was born in 1881 in Salonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece), then…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1
"Peace at home, peace in the world."
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Politics
Nadia Murad
born 1993 · Iraq
Nadia Murad (born 1993) is a Yazidi human rights activist from the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. In 2014, when she was twenty-one years old,…
Critical thinking Resilience Intercultural competence Critical literacy
"I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine."
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Philosophy
Nagarjuna
c. 150-250 CE · India, South Asia
Nagarjuna (approximately 150-250 CE) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher, widely considered one of the most important and influential thinkers in the entire history of Asian…
Metacognition Ethical thinking Scientific thinking Critical thinking +1
"Whatever is dependently arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way."
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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."
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Physics
Narges Mohammadi
born 1972 · Iran
Narges Mohammadi (born 1972) is an Iranian physicist, journalist, and human rights activist. She is one of Iran's most prominent advocates for the abolition of…
Critical thinking Critical literacy Resilience Intercultural competence
"I will not stop. My voice will not be silenced."
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History
Natalie Zemon Davis
1928-present · United States / Canada
Natalie Zemon Davis (born 1928) is an American-Canadian historian. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a Jewish family, and studied history at Smith College,…
Research skills Critical thinking Storytelling and narrative Cultural heritage and identity +1
"What I offer you is in part my invention, but held tightly in check by the voices of the past."
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Law
Nelson Mandela
1918-2013 · South Africa
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African lawyer, freedom fighter, and statesman. He led the long struggle to end apartheid, the racist system that ruled…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and…"
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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."
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Technology & Engineering
Nikola Tesla
1856-1943 · Serbian, Austrian Empire / United States
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was an electrical engineer and inventor whose work on alternating current, induction motors, and wireless power transmission helped shape the modern electrical…
Scientific thinking Creative expression Research skills Critical thinking +1
"The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine."
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Arts
Nina Simone
1933 - 2003 · United States (African American, exiled in Europe in later life)
Nina Simone was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. Her real name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon. She was born in 1933 in the small town…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1
"An artist's duty is to reflect the times."
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Language & Linguistics
Noam Chomsky
b. 1928 · United States
Avram Noam Chomsky (born 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, and political commentator whose work has changed the study of language and who has also…
Critical thinking Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."
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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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Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
1841-1935 · United States
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935) was an American jurist, legal philosopher, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was born in Boston,…
Critical thinking Citizenship Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience."
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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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Education
Origen
c. 184 - c. 253 CE · Alexandria, Roman Egypt
Origen was an early Christian scholar and teacher. He was born around 184 CE in Alexandria, in Roman Egypt, and died around 253 CE. He…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, and have a meaning not only such as is plain, but…"
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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."
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Medicine & Health
Paracelsus
1493-1541 · Switzerland (Holy Roman Empire)
Paracelsus was a Swiss physician, alchemist, and reformer of medicine who lived during the early Renaissance. His real name was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression +1
"All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison."
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Politics
Patrice Lumumba
1925-1961 · Democratic Republic of the Congo
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese political leader and the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was born in…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1
"We have known the mockery, the insults, the blows we had to endure morning, noon, and night because we were…"
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