Inspirational persons with inspirational thoughts and vision

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich and he began his schooling there at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained his doctor's degree.

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Aristotle

Aristotle was born in 384 BCE. at Stagirus, a Greek colony and seaport on the coast of Thrace. His father Nichomachus was court physician to King Amyntas of Macedonia, and from this began Aristotle's long association with the Macedonian Court, which considerably influenced his life. While he was still a boy his father died. At age 17 his guardian, Proxenus, sent him to Athens, the intellectual center of the world, to complete his education. He joined the Academy and studied under Plato, attending his lectures for a period of twenty years. In the later years of his association with Plato and the Academy he began to lecture on his own account, especially on the subject of rhetoric.

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Buddha

The oldest known date in the history of India is the death of the one called Buddha in 483 BC, and even that date is somewhat controversial. Buddha means 'one who is intuitive, awakened, or enlightened.' The famous historical person known as Buddha was also called the Tathagata, which means 'the one who has come thus,' and Shakyamuni, which means 'the sage of the Shakya tribe.' He is said to have lived eighty years, and thus was probably born in 563 BC.

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Carl Gustav Jung
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)

Swiss psychiatrist, one of the founding fathers of modern depth psychology. Jung's most famous concept, the collective unconscious, has had a deep influence not only on psychology but also on philosophy and the arts. Jung's break with Sigmund Freud is one of the famous stories in the early history of psychoanalytic thought. More than Freud, Jung has inspired the New Age movement with his interest in occultism, Eastern religions, the I Ching, and mythology.

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Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is one of the world's bestselling spiritual authors and the founder of the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California.

If you would like to become part of a global community of conscious peace makers, please visit www.chopra.com and click under ”News from Deepak.”

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John Lennon

John: "I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ or anti-religion. I am not saying we are greater or better. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong. I wasn't saying whatever they are saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it, really. I apologize, if that will make them happy. I still don't know quite what I've done."

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Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran was among the most important arabic language authors of the early twentieth century. He also went on to become a famous author and artist in his adopted country, the U.S., especially by virtue of the phenomenal popularity of his 1923 The Prophet

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Lao Tzu

According to legend Lao Tzu was keeper of the archives at the imperial court. When he was eighty years old he set out for the western border of china, toward what is now Tibet, saddened and disillusioned that men were unwilling to follow the path to natural goodness. At the border (Hank Pass), a guard, Yin Xi (Yin Hsi), asked Lao Tsu to record his teachings before he left. He then composed in 5,000 characters the Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power).

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Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was educated in his father's house receiving the usual elementary education of reading, writing and arithmetic. In 1467 he became an apprentice learning painting, sculpture and acquiring technical and mechanical skills. He was accepted into the painters' guild in Florence in 1472 but he continued to work as an apprentice until 1477. From that time he worked for himself in Florence as a painter. Already during this time he sketched pumps, military weapons and other machines.

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Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India. He became one of the most respected spiritual and political leaders of the 1900's. Gandhi helped free the Indian people from British rule through nonviolent resistance, and is honored by his people as the father of the Indian Nation. The Indian people called Gandhi Mahatma, meaning Great Soul.

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Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 27, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), whose original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister, left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson became one of America's best known and best loved 19th century figures.

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Richard Bach

Born in 1936 in Oak Park, Ill., son of Roland Robert and Ruth Helen (Shaw) Bach, the American Richard Bach is the great-great-great-great (how many more should I add? grand son of JS Bach the great composer we all know. He attended Long Beach State College (now California State University, Long Beach) in 1955.

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Seneca

LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA (3 B.C.-65 A.D.) THE eight tragedies and one praetexta attributed to Seneca are the only surviving specimens of Latin tragic drama. They were probably written by the philosopher of that name, who was born in Cordova, Spain, in the third year of our era. He was a brilliant youth, studying law and the Greek poets. Early in life he attached himself to the Stoics, later to the Pythagoreans.

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Socrates

Socrates (469-399), despite his foundational place in the history of ideas, actually wrote nothing. Most of our knowledge of him comes from the works of Plato (427-347), and since Plato had other concerns in mind than simple historical accuracy it is usually impossible to determine how much of his thinking actually derives from Socrates.

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Zig Ziglar

Born Hillary Ziglar in southern rural Alabama, "Zig" Ziglar and family soon moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, and the salesman, motivational speaker and born-again Christian hasn’t looked back. As a child of the depression, Ziglar says he struggled with basic insecurities and small expectations for years. After a discharge from the Navy in 1946 Ziglar studied at the University of South Carolina. However he soon abandoned his studies and began selling aluminum pots door to door for the Wearever Aluminum Company.