James Arthur Baldwin (1924 –1987) was an American writer, orator and activist. As a writer, he garnered acclaim across various mediums, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953; decades later, Time magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. His first essay collection, Notes of a Native Son, was published in 1955. Baldwin was also a well-known, and controversial, public figure, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.

Susan Horowitz Cain "SUSAN CAIN is the #1 bestselling author of Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, which has been translated into 40 languages".... Learn more
 Photo Credit: Aaron Fedor

William Frederick Halsey Jr. or Bull Halsey (1882 – 1959) Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. He is one of four individuals to have attained the rank of fleet admiral, the others being Ernest King, William Leahy, and Chester W. Nimitz.

Few artists have articulated the dance between this “divine discontent” and creative fulfillment more memorably than the poet, novelist, essayist, and diarist May Sarton (May 3, 1912–July 16, 1995). In her Journal of a Solitude (public library), Sarton records and reflects on her interior life in the course of one year, her sixtieth, with remarkable candor and courage. Out of these twelve private months arises the eternity of the human experience with its varied universal capacities for astonishment and sorrow, hollowing despair and creative vitality.

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André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869 - 1951)  French author known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works. He authored more than fifty books and he was the winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide was brought up in isolated conditions in Normandy and became a prolific writer at an early age. He published his first novel, "The Notebooks of André Walter" (French: Les Cahiers d'André Walter), at the age of twenty-one.

"It starts with a low hum that adheres itself to the underbelly of the hours like another dimension. Gradually, surreptitiously, the noise swells to a bellowing bass line, until it drowns out the symphony of life" ...Read more 

Photo credit: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864) - was an American novelist, born in Salem, Massachusetts.  His first novel, "Fanshawe" was published in 1828. He published several short stories in periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as "Twice-Told Tales".  "The Scarlet Letter" was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.
This quote is from his Novel, "Fanshawe".

Bruce Lee (1940 – 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and philosopher. Lee is considered by critics, media, and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films. His death, at the age of 32. was attributed to be the result of cerebral edema, (brain swelling) although there is no absence of conspiracy theories . .... Read more

....."Taking the work and the knowledge and the discoveries of those that came before you. And, in your life time, you are going to move it forward in ways no one could have imagine. And you’re not going to get all the way. And that’s OK. Because without your effort, humanity is never going to get there...."Read more

Pablo Picasso (1881 –1973) - Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer. He spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he us known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage art and for the wide variety of styles he helped develop and explore. Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years and was extremely prolific throughout his life with over 20,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and other items such as costumes and theater sets. Read more

 In his book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" : Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Postman argued that by expressing ideas through visual imagery, television reduces politics, news, history and other serious topics to entertainment. He worried that culture would decline if the people became an audience and their public business a "vaudeville act". Read the excerpt of the book's forward

Neil Postman (1931 - 2003) was an American critic educator and Author. In addition to Amusing ourselves to Death, Postman wrote several other books as well as magazine and newspaper articles regarding technology and education. His other books include Conscientious Objections (1988), Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992), The Disappearance of Childhood (1982) and The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).

His interests were were very diverse. He wrote on the disappearance of childhood, reforming public education, postmodernism, semantics, inguistics, and technopolies.

Sources: Wikipedia, NeilPostman.org

Henry Ward Beecher (1813 – 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love and a novel oratorical style in which he employed humor, dialect, and slang. He was thought to be the most famous preacher in the nation. Read more

Source: "Life thoughts", 1859