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George Santayana - (1863 – 1952)  ~ Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, was a philosopher, essayist, poet, critic and novelist. Born in Spain and raised and educated in the US from the age of eight. He left his position at Harvard at the age of 48 and returned to Europe permanently. Santayana was the author of many books and known for his aphorisms. He was profoundly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought. Although he was an atheist, he treasured the Spanish Catholic values, practices, and worldview in which he was raised. 

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher.[1] Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the first United States Postmaster General. Wikipedia

Chauncey Mitchell Depew (1834 – 1928) was an American lawyer, businessman, attorney and politician. He served for two terms as United States Senator from New York and was well know for his wit and as an orator and after dinner speaker. He did work for Cornelius Vanderbilt, as an attorney and as president of the New York Central Railroad System. Read more  

Anthony de Mello, also known as Tony de Mello (1931– 987), was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist born in Bombay, India. A spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker. He wrote several books on spirituality and hosted numerous spiritual retreats and conferences. He is known for his storytelling which drew from the various mystical traditions of both East and West and for introducing many people in the West to mindfulness-based practices he sometimes called "awareness prayer"
Quote source: "Awakening - Conversations with the Masters" - Wikipedia

George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum - 1896 – 1996) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He and his wife Gracie Allen appeared on radio, television and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen. He continue to work until just weeks before his death of cardiac arrest at his home, shortly after his hundredth birthday.

Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ (1803 –1882) American poet, philosopher, essayist and abolitionist.  His first two collections of "Essays" First Series (1841) and  Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include  "Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul", "Circles", "The Poet",  "Experience" and "Nature". His work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that followed him. , He wrote: "In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man" Wikipedia

Sophocles ( c. 496 ~ 406 BC) One of three ancient Greek tragedians (Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides); Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For many years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Wikipedia

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.

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.

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.