Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. He wrote his first nine novels in Russian while living in Berlin. He achieved international prominence after moving to the United States and beginning to write in English. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945, but he and his wife returned to Europe in 1961, settling in Switzerland.

The quote above is from his first book in the English language; "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight" published in 1941

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) - Born Thomas Pain; was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin, arriving just in time to participate in the American Revolution. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name, Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, publisher, and lecturer.

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

Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz - (1922 – 2000) was an American cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Peanuts. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time.

"Original Photo courtesy Orange County Archives." More

Walt Whitman ( 1819 - 1892) American poet, essayist, and journalist.

Quote attribution:  Michaela Chung 

Margaret Mead (1901 – 1978) American cultural anthropologist author and speaker. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard College her MA and PhD degrees from Columbia University.  Mead served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1975. More

Thomas Edison - (1847-1931) American inventor and businessman. He invented many devices in fields such as electric power generation, communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.

Simone Adolphine Weil (1909 - 1943)  French philosopher, mystic, and political activist and writer. Weil wrote throughout her life, although most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. Albert Camus described her as "the only great spirit of our times". More

Carl Gustav Jung (1875- 1961) - Born Karl Gustav Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology and religious studies. He conducted  lengthy correspondence and collaborated with Sigmund Freud for a while, on a joint vision of human psychology. Eventually Jung established Jung's analytical psychology as a comprehensive system separate from Freud's psychoanalysis.

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)