I know it's a spoiled cliché by now, and then some, but it has always been Leonardo Da Vinci. I admire creative people and he kind of personifies creativity, for me, aswell as a master of his instruments.
Clearly, I don't tell people this unless I want to get into discussions of grails being vaginas and some dude being a woman in a painting. Couldn't care less.
I will go with one most probably don't know. Nathanael Greene had no military experience at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. He was raised by a father that hated the idea of being educated, so he had to teach himself. He learned what he knew about war strategy from reading books and rose through the ranks of Washington's army to become one of it's best generals.
There are many great people from the American Revolution that one could choose.
I'm not sure. It depends in what context. If we're talking military conquerers, Alexander the Great had a kingdom twice the size of the Roman Empire by the time he was 30. Speaking of ancient Greece, I really like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as well. I also like Leonardo da Vinci, but not for his paintings. In terms of music, Beatles maybe... or Elvis... or Bach. Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein, anyone who's made a contribution to science. And Shigeru Miyamoto.
Either Churchill or Albert I. Both faced the brunt of human brutishness and thuggery with immeasurable courage. Though, to be honest, I still have a lot of history to catch up on -- I look forward to it.
I'm not even Finnish, but this guy was one badass motherfucker.
@mylifeforAiur said:
Either Churchill or Albert I. Both faced the brunt of human brutishness and thuggery with immeasurable courage. Though, to be honest, I still have a lot of history to catch up on -- I look forward to it.
Those, as well as Bór-Komorowski, Abraham Lincoln, W. T. Sherman, and Hannibal have to be some of the most interesting historical figures, but favourite? Thomas Paine.
I'm very interested in the great conquerors, like Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great or Julius Ceasar.
If you haven't already, read some books by Conn Iggulden, he's made novels about Khan and Ceasar which are mostly historic but with a few changes for the sake of narrative. Good reads.
You posted a historical figure whose existence is accepted, despite not having enough sources to confirm said existence? In that case, I'll go with Socrates, since most of what we know about the dude is from Plato using him as a mouthpiece for whatever he wanted to say. Also, his story is still a very appealing one; it pulls off Greek tragedy and the quest for knowledge really well.
Going to say Frederick II (of the HRE, not Prussia). He was a cunning bastard. Maybe not the most successful emperor militarily but he did some great diplomacy for the 13th century, and a very secular mind. And he wrote texts on falconry that I've heard are still used (though art was so bad back then, i have trouble believing it.)
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