I regard organised religion as more of a dividing than a unifying force but I share with those who are religious an overwhelming desire to express thankfulness. Naturally I am grateful to family and friends but beyond them I would like to salute all the men and women whose energetic effort, excellent example and power to Elevate have enriched my life immeasurably.
I may have left out a few but this is the best I could manage in half an hour. It’s not much to give for a lifetime of encouragement.
Jane Austen Samuel Beckett William Blake Jorge Luis Borges Boudica Ray Bradbury Emily Bronte Big Bill Broonzy Arthur Brown Lenny Bruce Gautama Buddha William Burroughs Samuel Butler Italo Calvino George Carlin Leonora Carrington Lewis Carroll Rachel Carson Miguel de Cervantes Anton Chekhov Samuel Taylor Coleridge Peter Cook Marie Curie Charles Darwin Ray Davies Richard Dawkins Charles Dickens Emily Dickinson Bob Dylan TS Eliot Harry Enfield Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot) Ella Fitzgerald Anne Frank Mahatma Gandhi Khalil Gibran Alan Ginsberg Jane Goodall Kenneth Grahame Jimi Hendrix Bill Hicks Christopher Hitchens Billie Holiday Barry Humphries Aldous Huxley James Joyce Carl Jung Franz Kafka Frida Kahlo Paul Kantner John Keats Jack Kerouac Martin Luther King Rudyard Kipling Philip Larkin DH Lawrence Edward Lear Ursula Le Guin John Lennon Abraham Lincoln Nelson Mandela Katherine Mansfield Bob Marley Spike Milligan Dudley Moore Jim Morrison Van Morrison Arthur Miller AA Milne Joni Mitchell Friedrich Nietzsche Florence Nightingale Flann O'Brien Joe Orton George Orwell Wilfred Owen Emmeline Pankhurst Rosa Parks Louis Pasteur Edgar Allen Poe Richard Pryor Queen Elizabeth I Francois Rabelais Arthur Rimbaud Christina Rossetti Mary Seacole WG Sebald Mary Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley William Shakespeare Grace Slick John Steinbeck Lawrence Sterne Robert Louis Stevenson Marie Stopes Tom Stoppard Dylan Thomas EP Thompson Thomas Traherne Harriet Tubman Leonardo da Vinci Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) Kurt Vonnegut Alan Watts HG Wells Oscar Wilde Hank Williams Tennessee Williams Virginia Wood Virginia Woolf William Wordsworth Neil Young Malala Yousafzai Frank Zappa
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That is so cool! I love your list, containing many of my heroes 🙂
Thanks, Christine, I loved compiling it!
Great list – many of those on my list too!
We’re blessed – no other word for it! – by their existence.
On the shoulders of Giants… yes!
May I add, some of giants we meet during our lifetimes, but they didnt wait for us to look up to them.
I never met any of these. Do you mean they die too soon or that they ignore us, may I ask?
Sometimes, brevity is not a strength for me! I meant that sometimes we meet people in our journey of life, who say or do something for us. They make a huge impact and move on. And we may not realize that until decades later, thus, we didnt get a chance to appreciate/ look up to them. They may be giant for one/ few families only.
Indeed. Here’s a quote from someone I left off my list:
A fine list. Yes, we need to stop and express thanks every once in awhile. (K)
And thank you … good to say it on here, too!
A few names I didn’t recognise there. I must admit though, when I saw Boudica, I found myself thinking, “Did you know her personally or only through her writings?” 😉 I guess you just admire her strength and determination. A woman leading a tribe/nation in what was then very much a man’s world takes some doing.
To be brutally honest – and these days that’s the only kind of honest to be – I was struggling for female inspiration and she came to mind. That there are not more women on the list is more to do with our chauvinist culture than my personal omission!
Brilliant. Very varied and all excellent. Glad you have the Captain in there. I would have added a few – Roy and Nick Harper come to mind.
Roy certainly, not really familiar with Nick’s work but I’m sure he’s a chip off the old bloke … er, block!