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William Blake - (1757 – 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Although Blake was largely unrecognized during his life, he is now considered an influential figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, but he is now held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. Read more

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 is popularly 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.

Quote source: –The Life of Reason: Reason in Society, Scribner

Eduardo Hughes Galeano, (1940 - 2015) was an Uruguayan journalist, writer, poet and novelist. Among his many books, Galiano's best-known works are "Las venas abiertas de América Latina" (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) and ""Memoria del fuego" (Memory of Fire Trilogy - 1982–6). "I'm a writer," the author once said of himself, "I am obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia. His first or paternal surname is Hughes and the second or maternal family name is Galeano. His two family names were inherited from Welsh and Italian great-grandfathers; the other two were from Germany and Spain. Galeano wrote under his maternal family name.

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. 

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

Frail children of sorrow, dethroned by a hue,
The shadows are flecked by the rose sifting through,
The world has its motion, all things pass away;
No night is omnipotent, there must be day!

The oak tarries long in the depths of the seed
But swift is the season of nettle and weed,
Abide yet awhile in the mellowing shade
And rise with the hour for which you were made.

The cycle of seasons, the tidals of man,
Revolve in the orb of the infinite plan;
We move to the rhythm of ages long done,
And each has his hour — to dwell in the sun!

Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 – 1966), American poet and playwright, music teacher and school principal, born in Atlanta, Georgia. She was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the earliest female African-American playwiters. She published her first poems in 1916 in the NAACP’s magazine Crisis where she wrote a weekly column, “Homely Philosophy,” from 1926 to 1932. Douglas Johnson also wrote plays, and four collections of poetry: The Heart of  a Woman (1918). Bronze (1922) and An Autumn Love Cycle (1928), and Share My World (1962). More

Aldous Leonard Huxley ~ (1894 -1963) English writer, novelist, philosopher, poet and pacifist. He authored nearly 50 books, including Brave New World (1932) and his final novel, Island (1962)  When he was 16, he suffered an eye infection that left him nearly blind for almost two years. His sight was so compromised that he learned to read in Braille. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times. As a pacifist, he renounced all war and refused to fight in any war a decision which caused him not to be able to become a United States citizen after living in California for 14 years with his wife. More

Julius Caesar is believed to have said “Alea iacta est", expressing his irreversible commitment, as he led his army across the Rubicon River in Northern Italy, defying the Roman Senate’s authority and initiating a civil war. More

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American writer, poet, singer, and civil rights activist.

Sándor Petőfi (1823 – 1849) was a Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary's national poet, and was one of the key figures of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He is the author of the poem “Talpra magyar” (“Rise, Hungarian”), written on the eve of the revolution, and is said to have inspired the the war of independence revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary that grew into a war for independence from the Austrian Empire. The Poem's words became its National Song (Nemzeti dal). It is believed that he died in the Battle of Segesvár, one of the last battles of the war.

               "NIght"

The night has a thousand eyes,
     And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
      With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
    And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
    When love is done.

Francis William Bourdillon (1852 - 1921) was a British poet, translator and a bibliophile. Bourdillon is known for his poetry, and in particular, for the single short poem "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes". He had many poem collections and essays published, including three smaller volumes of verse published anonymously at Oxford between 1891 and 1894.

Photo credit: RezaAskarii

Larry Joseph Sabato - American political scientist, political analyst. and author. He is the founder and director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, which also  publishes Sabato's Crystal Ball, an online newsletter and website that provides free political analysis and electoral projections. He is the author of over twenty books on politics including the Pendulum Swing. He is the co-author with Glenn R. Simpson of Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics