Public Posts

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862).  American naturalist, philosopher, poet, and essayist. He is best known for his book "Walden" or "Life in the woods", a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

Edmund Burke ( 1729 – 1797)  British and Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. He was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state. Read more

William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois - (1868  - 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Mass. , Du Bois completed his graduate work at Belin's Friedrich Wilhelm University and Harvard University, where he was its first African American to earn a doctorate. Du Bois rose to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of black civil rights activists seeking equal rights who opposed the the Atlanta Compromise, insisting on full civil rights and increased political representation. He was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909

Du Bois argued that the true measure of a nation's prosperity lies not in wealth accumulation by a select few, but in the well-being and opportunities available to all citizens. He emphasized the importance of addressing poverty, ensuring access to healthcare, providing quality education, and fostering a culture of literacy as key indicators of a truly prosperous nation.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861– 1941), also known as Rabindranath Thakur FRAS  and by his pseudonym Bhanusimha or Gurudev-  was a Bengali Brahmin and polymath from Calcutta; renowned poet, writer, philosopher, musician, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renaissance. Tagore became the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize in any category, and also the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. An advocated for Indian independence from British rule, Tagore left an indelible mark on Indian culture and thought. More 

Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist and poet. He was a key figure in Spanish language and universal literature.

Avram Noam Chomsky, born in 1928 is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s. More Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media. More

Carl Edward Sagan (1934 – 1996) ~ American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. He was one of the most well-known scientist of the 1970's and 1980's . He was controversial in scientific, political, and religious circles for his views on extraterrestrial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and religion. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He was an advocate for nuclear disarmament and co-wrote and hosted 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.'  He was widely regarded as a freethinker and one of his most famous quotations, in Cosmos, was, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  He died at the age of 62 from complications of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). More

W. H. H. MacKellar is the most likely originator of this expression based on the 1939 citation in “The Rotarian”. Gil Stern popularized a version beginning in 1967. Other attributions have been made but there is not strong support for them. Read more

Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 – 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, literary translator and poet. Beckett was a resident of Paris for most of his adult life and he wrote in both French and English. Beckett was a member of the French Resistance group Gloria SMH during WWII and he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1961 he shared the inaugural Prix International with Jorge Luis Borges. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. More

Publius Ovidius Naso known in English as Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus  and was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace and often ranked  with them as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature.Ovid was extremely popular during his lifetime but was exiled by emperor Augustus to Tomis, known today as Constanța, a historical city located on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a carmen et error ("poem and a mistake"), but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.

Source: The Tristia of Ovid

Leo Tolstoy, (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) (1828 - 1910} Renowned Russian writer and philosopher born into an aristocratic Russian family. He is best known for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which are considered among the greatest works of realist fiction. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time and a major figure in Russian literature. Tolstoy's writing also explored themes of morality, spirituality, and social reform. His works continue to be read and studied worldwide, influencing writers and thinkers across generations. His ideas about non-violence, social justice, and the importance of individual conscience have had a lasting impact on social and political movements.

Aesop (620 – 564 BC) Greek fabulist and story teller

Image: Aesop  by Diego Velazquez -| Museo Del Prado