Great Minds.
Inspiring quotes from the minds of humanity's greatest thinkers.


An agglomeration of ageless wisdom and a labor of love by Layth Barzangi.

Last updated on 18 Mar 2008
Hit 500 quotes mark on 10 Jan 2007!
Hit 600 quotes mark on 01 Sep 2007!



Retrieved a total of 147 authors and 616 quotes.


Adams, John (1735-1826)
Second President of the United States (1797-1801).




al-Ma'arri, Abu-al-Ala (973-1057)
Arabic poet and philosopher.




Allen, Ethan (1738-1789)
American Revolutionary.




Allen, Steve (1921-2000)
American musician, comedian, writer and original host of the The Tonight Show (1953-1957).




Anthony, Susan B. (1820-1906)
American feminist leader and suffragist.




Archer, William (1856-1924)
Scottish critic.




Aristotle (ca. 384-322 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.




Asimov, Isaac (1920-1992)
Russian-born American scientist and prolific writer.




Attenborough, Sir David Frederick (b. 1926)
World renown British broadcaster and naturalist. Widely considered one of the pioneers of the nature documentary, he has written and presented eight major series surveying nearly every aspect of life on Earth.




Bacon, Sir Francis (1561-1626)
English philosopher and statesman, one of the pioneers of modern scientific thought.




Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1814-1876)
Russian anarchist and political theorist.




Baldwin, James A. (1924-1987)
American writer and outspoken critic of racism.




Barker, Dan (b. 1949)
American author and critic, former preacher, co-founded the Freedom From Religion Foundation.




Berry, Matt 
American author and philosopher.




Boorstin, Daniel Joseph (1914-2004)
American historian and writer, Librarian of Congress (1975-1987).




Bradlaugh, Charles (1833-1891)
Atheist writer and member of Parliament.




Branden, Nathaniel (b. 1930)
Canadian psychotherapist and author of psychology books and multiple articles on ethical and political philosophy. Famous for his work on the psychology of self-esteem.




Bukowski, Charles (1920-1994)
American poet and novelist.




Burbank, Luther (1849-1926)
American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science.




Burroughs, John (1837-1921)
American naturalist and writer.




Celsus (c. 2 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.




Channing, William (1810-1884)
American writer and philosopher.




Cioran, Emil M. (1911-1995)
Romanian-born French philosopher.




Clarke, Arthur C. (b. 1917)
British science fiction writer.




Clifford, William Kingdon (1845-1879)
English mathematician and philosopher.




Cohen, Chapman (1868-1954)
British Freethought advocate and writer.




Comte, Auguste (1798-1857)
French philosopher.




Darrow, Clarence Seward (1857-1938)
American lawyer who made a name for himself fighting capital punishment as well as championing the underdog and so-called lost-cause defendants.




Darwin, Charles (1809-1882)
English naturalist, founder of the revolutionary theory of evolution and the principle of common descent through natural selection.




Dawkins, Richard (b. 1941)
East African-born British Zoologist; the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.




de Unamuno, Miguel (1864-1936)
Spanish writer and philosopher.




Dennett, Daniel (b. 1942)
Prominent American philosopher and atheist activist. His research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.




Descartes, René (1596-1650)
French philosopher and mathematician.




Dewey, John (1859-1952)
Prominent American philosopher and educator.




Diderot, Denis (1713-1784)
French philosopher and writer of L'Encyclopédie (1751-1772).




Dillard, Annie (b. 1945)
American author. Pulitzer Prize winner (1975) for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.




Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (1821-1881)
Russian novelist.




Druyan, Ann (b. 1949)
American author and media producer known for her involvement in many projects aiming to popularize and explain science.




Eco, Umberto (b. 1932)
Italian novelist and philosopher.




Edison, Thomas Alva (1847-1931)
Prolific American inventor, who patented more than a thousand inventions.




Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
German-born American theoretical physicist whose special and general theories of relativity revolutionized modern thought on the nature of space and time.




Ellis, Albert (b. 1913)
American psychologist and originator of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT).




Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
American essayist and poet.




Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.




Ferrer, Francisco (1859-1909)
Spanish crusader against illiteracy, monarchy, militarism, and religion: in a sense the last major European figure executed for heresy, his death was celebrated by Pope Pius X.




Feuerbach, Ludwig von (1804-1872)
German philosopher.




Feynman, Richard P. (1918-88)
American Caltech physicist and Nobel Laureate.




Fouts, Roger (b. 1943)
American professor of psychology, best known for his work teaching sign language to chimpanzees, which he documented in his book Next of Kin.




Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790)
American public official, writer, scientist.




Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)
Austrian physician and pioneer psychoanalyst.




Gage, Matilda Joslyn (1826-1898)
American author and women's suffrage activist.




Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642)
Italian astronomer and physicist.




Gardner, Helen H. 
American author, freethinker and advocate of women's equality.




Gautama, Siddhartha (B.C. 563-483)
AKA Gautama Buddha. Philosopher and spiritual teacher from ancient India and the historical founder of Buddhism.




Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935)
Prominent American non-fiction writer, short story writer, novelist, commercial artist, lecturer, and social reformer.




Goldman, Emma (1869-1940)
Russian-American anarchist, writer, publisher.




Gould, Stephen Jay (b. 1941)
American paleontologist.




Green, Ruth Hurmence (1915-1981)
"Born-Again Atheist".




Haeckel, Ernst (1834-1919)
Eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist.




Haldane, J.B.S. (1892-1964)
British geneticist, evolutionary biologist and one of the founders of population genetics.




Haldeman-Julius, Emanuel (1889-1951)
American socialist reformer and publisher.




Harris, Sam (b. 1967)
American author with active interests in philosophy, religion and neuroscience. His first book "The End of Faith" won the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award.




Hawking, Stephen William (b. 1942)
British scientist, one of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a post once held by Isaac Newton).




Hayes, Judith 
American author, famous for her long-running Happy Heretic column.




Heinlein, Robert A. (1907-1988)
Influential American science fiction author.




Hitchens, Christopher (b. 1949)
British journalist, author, critic and self-proclaimed political satirist.




Hoffer, Eric (1902-1983)
American philosopher.




Hubbard, Elbert (1856-1915)
American writer and publisher.




Hugo, Victor (1802-1885)
French poet, dramatist, novelist.




Hume, David (1711-1776)
Scottish philosopher and historian, one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment.




Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895)
British biologist, stront supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution, coined the term 'agnostism'.