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.

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

"On this 18th anniversary of the birth of The Marginalian, here are all of these learnings so far as they were originally written in years past, beginning with the present year’s — the most challenging and most transformative of my life.". Read more at The Marginalian

Florynce Kennedy (1916 – 2000) Commonly known as "Flo"was an American lawyer, Civil Rights activist, radical feminist, lecturer, and activist. More

Epictetus - (c. 50 – c. 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia in present-day Pamukkale (Turkey). He lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis, Greece, where he spent the rest of his life. Epictetus taught that philosophy is a way of life and not a theoretical discipline and that all external events are beyond our control. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline.

Hungarian Proverb. Sometimes attributed to Edgar Allen Poe.

Dougal Robertson (1924–1992) was a Scottish author and sailor born in Edinburgh who survived with his family being adrift at sea for 38 days after their 43-foot schooner, the Lucette, was sunk by a pod of killer whales in 1972 while on circumnavigation of the world trip. He recounted the ordeal in his books “Survive the Savage Sea” and "Sea Survival – A Manual" More

Eric Hoffer - (1902 –1983) was an American moral and social conservative philosopher. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen. Almost overnight, the San Francisco dockworker became a public figure. Recognized as a highly original thinker, he became known as the Longshoreman Philosopher. After The True Believer, he published ten more books. he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. More

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (1921 – 1991) was an American television producer and screenwriter. He was the creator of the science fiction franchise, Star Trek. Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. During World War II, Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he began to write for television. More

Dorothy Ann Richards (1933 – 2006) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. A Democrat, she was elected to become Texas State Treasurer and then the second female governor of Texas (the first being Miriam A. Ferguson), and was frequently noted in the media for her outspoken feminism and her one-liners.
This quote is from her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention