SundayQuote

Richard Dawkins English Scientist (March 26, 1941) SundayQuote.com Clinton Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term, meme. With his book The Extended Phenotype (1982), he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment.

Bernard Malamud American Novelist (April 26, 1914 - March 18, 1986) SundayQuote.com Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer (also filmed), about antisemitism in Tsarist Russia, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Virginia Woolf British Author (January 25, 1882 - March 28, 1941) SundayQuote.com Adeline Virginia Woolf (; née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer, who is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Virginia Stephen was born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London. She was the seventh child in a blended family of eight. Her mother, Julia Stephen, celebrated as a Pre-Raphaelite artist's model, had three children from her first marriage, her father Leslie Stephen, a notable man of letters, had one previous daughter, and four children were born in her parents' second marriage, of whom the most well known was the modernist painter Vanessa Stephen (later Vanessa Bell).

Hannah Arendt German Historian (October 14, 1906 - December 4, 1975) SundayQuote.com Johanna "Hannah" Arendt (; German: [ˈaːʁənt]; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German-born American philosopher and political theorist. Her eighteen books and numerous articles, on topics ranging from totalitarianism to epistemology, had a lasting influence on political theory. Arendt is widely considered one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century. As a Jew, Arendt chose to leave Nazi Germany in 1933, and lived in Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and France before escaping to the United States in 1941 via Portugal.

Iris Murdoch Irish Author (July 15, 1919 - February 8, 1999) SundayQuote.com Dame Jean Iris Murdoch (; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was a British novelist and philosopher born in Ireland to Irish parentage. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected in 1998 as one of Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 1987, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Her books include The Bell (1958), A Severed Head (1961), The Red and the Green (1965), The Nice and the Good (1968), The Black Prince (1973), Henry and Cato (1976), The Sea, the Sea (1978, Booker Prize), The Philosopher's Pupil (1983), The Good Apprentice (1985), The Book and the Brotherhood (1987), The Message to the Planet (1989), and The Green Knight (1993).

Albert Einstein German Physicist (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955) SundayQuote.com Albert Einstein (; German: [ˈalbɛɐ̯t ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn] ( listen); 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He is best known to the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory.

Moliere French Playwright (January 15, 1622 - February 17, 1673) SundayQuote.com Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière (; French: [mɔ.ljɛːʁ]; 15 January 1622 – 17 February 1673), was a French playwright, actor and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and universal literature. His extant works includes comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. Born into a prosperous family and having studied at the Collège de Clermont (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière was well suited to begin a life in the theatre.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. American Athlete (February 24, 1977) SundayQuote.com Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (né Sinclair; born February 24, 1977) is an American professional boxing promoter and former professional boxer. He competed from 1996 to 2007 and 2009 to 2015, and made a one-fight comeback in 2017. During his career, he held multiple world titles in five weight classes and the lineal championship in four weight classes (twice at welterweight), and retired with an undefeated record of 50–0, the second highest undefeated streak, after Ricardo López, in the modern era of boxing.

Simone Weil French Philosopher (February 3, 1909 - August 24, 1943) SundayQuote.com Simone Weil (; French: [simɔn vɛj] ( listen); 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. The mathematician Andre Weil was her brother. After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher. She taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks due to poor health and to devote herself to political activism, work that would see her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the Anarchists known as the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War, and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in auto factories, so she could better understand the working class.

Pablo Neruda Chilean Writer (July 12, 1904 - September 23, 1973) SundayQuote.com Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; Spanish: [ˈpaβlo neˈɾuða]), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).

Victor Hugo French Author (February 26, 1802 - May 22, 1885) SundayQuote.com Victor Marie Hugo (French: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo] ( listen); 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. Hugo is considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. Outside of France, his most famous works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris), 1831. In France, Hugo is known primarily for his poetry collections, such as Les Contemplations (The Contemplations) and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages).

Seamus Heaney Irish Poet (April 13, 1939 - August 30, 2013) SundayQuote.com Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran between Castledawson and Toomebridge, Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearby Bellaghy when he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College in Belfast in the early 1960s, after attending Queen's University and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin from 1976 until his death.

William Shakespeare English Dramatist (April 23, 1564 - April 23, 1616) SundayQuote.com William Shakespeare ( SHAYK-speer; 26 April 1564 (baptised)—23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as both the greatest writer in the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

William Shakespeare English Dramatist (April 23, 1564 - April 23, 1616) SundayQuote.com William Shakespeare ( SHAYK-speer; 26 April 1564 (baptised)—23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as both the greatest writer in the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Sigmund Freud Austrian Psychologist (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) SundayQuote.com Sigmund Freud ( FROYD; German: [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt]; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.

Adele English Musician (May 5, 1988) SundayQuote.com Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in 2006, Adele was given a recording contract by XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace the same year. In 2007, she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" award and won the BBC Sound of 2008 poll. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. It is certified seven times platinum in the UK, and three times platinum in the US.

Virginia Woolf British Author (January 25, 1882 - March 28, 1941) SundayQuote.com Adeline Virginia Woolf (; née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer, who is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Virginia Stephen was born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London. She was the seventh child in a blended family of eight. Her mother, Julia Stephen, celebrated as a Pre-Raphaelite artist's model, had three children from her first marriage, her father Leslie Stephen, a notable man of letters, had one previous daughter, and four children were born in her parents' second marriage, of whom the most well known was the modernist painter Vanessa Stephen (later Vanessa Bell).

Salvador Dali Spanish Artist (May 11, 1904 - January 23, 1989) SundayQuote.com Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí de Púbol (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), known professionally as Salvador Dalí ( Catalan: [səɫβəˈðo ðəˈɫi]; Spanish: [salβaˈðoɾ ðaˈli]), was a prominent Spanish surrealist born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931.

Benjamin Franklin American Politician (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790) SundayQuote.com Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Austrian Philosopher (April 26, 1889 - April 29, 1951) SundayQuote.com Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (; German: [ˈvɪtgənˌʃtaɪn]; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge. During his lifetime he published just one slim book, the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), one article, one book review and a children's dictionary. His voluminous manuscripts were edited and published posthumously.

Friedrich Nietzsche German Philosopher (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) SundayQuote.com Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtʃə] ( listen); 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist and a Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24.

Adele English Musician (May 5, 1988) SundayQuote.com Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in 2006, Adele was given a recording contract by XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace the same year. In 2007, she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" award and won the BBC Sound of 2008 poll. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. It is certified seven times platinum in the UK, and three times platinum in the US.

Mark Twain American Author (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910) SundayQuote.com Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1875) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel". Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens.

William Shakespeare English Dramatist (April 23, 1564 - April 23, 1616) SundayQuote.com William Shakespeare ( SHAYK-speer; 26 April 1564 (baptised)—23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as both the greatest writer in the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Louise Bogan American Poet (August 11, 1897 - February 4, 1970) SundayQuote.com Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970) was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945. As poetry editor of The New Yorker magazine for nearly 40 years, Bogan played a major role in shaping mainstream poetic sensibilities of the mid-20th Century. The Poetry Foundation notes that Bogan has been called by some critics the most accomplished woman poet of the twentieth century. It further notes that, "Some critics have placed her in a category of brilliant minor poets described as the "reactionary generation."