Johann Friedrich Von Schiller (1759 - 1805) - German playwright, poet, and philosopher. He authored an extraordinary series of dramas, including The Robbers, Maria Stuart, and the trilogy Wallenstein. He best known for his  influence on German literature.

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879, - April 18, 1955)

Voltaire -(1694-1778)  François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire. was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state. He was one of the greatest of all French writers.

Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883 –1950) Austrian political economist. He emigrated to the  United States in 1932 to become a professor at Harvard University, where he remained until the end of his career. He was one of the most influential economists of the early 20th century and has been credited for popularizing the term "Creative destruction".

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.

Please click to read the full text of the Commencement address delivered to the MIT Graduating class of 2020 by retired four - star U. S. Navy admiral William H. McRaven.

Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) -French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to reestablish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, reelected in 1965 until his resignation in 1969.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) British philosopher, writer, mathematician, logician, historian, social critic, political activist, and Nobel Laureate.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865)

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809 -1892) - British poet who become the most popular poet of the Victorian era and remains one of the most popular British poets.

In a church which is furnish'd with mullion and gable,
With altar and reredos, with gargoyle and groin,
The penitents' dresses are sealskin and sable,
The odour of sanctity's eau-de-Cologne.
But only could Lucifer, flying from Hades,
Gaze down on this crowd with its panniers and paints,
He would say, as he look'd at the lords and the ladies,
"Oh, where is All-Sinners', if this is All-Saints'?"

Edmund Yates (1831 - 1894) British journalist, novelist and dramatist. Born in Edinburgh. In 1854 he published his first book "My Haunts and their Frequenters", after which followed a succession of novels and plays.Yates was perhaps best known as proprietor and editor, under the pen-name of "Atlas", of The World Society newspaper.

Public Domain Poem

Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) American poet, philosopher and essayist.