The world has seen many great heroes over the past 2,000 years. Some were kind, some were brave, and some were ruthless leaders. Time and time again, people have looked to these role models as a way of understanding how to live their lives. These people left a mark on history, and influenced the way in which society functions to this day. Who are the most influential people of all time? That's a personal choice, but we've created a list of what we believe are the top 10.
While making this list, we didn't copy-paste the TIME's 100 most influential people like many others; we've properly analyzed and rounded up those who will also remain influential for the next century.
Without further ado, here's the top ten most influential people of all time.
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist, inventor and scientist. He is perhaps the most versatile genius of all time, but he never attended school. Instead, he was self-taught. His immense range of intelligence and curiosity were seemingly boundless.
From the artist Andrea del Verrocchio, he learned painting and sculpture as well as technical and mechanical arts when he was 15 years old.
Today Leonardo da Vinci is best known for his famous paintings: 'Mona Lisa', 'The Last Supper', 'Vitruvian Man', 'Lady with an Ermine', 'Salvator Mundi'. Leonardo used special techniques in his paintings known as 'sfumato'.
As well as contributing to the fields of art, architecture, biology, music (he invented a silver lyre that was more beautiful in sound than traditional wooden lyres), optics and physics, he was an accomplished writer on various topics. Why those notebooks were not published during his lifetime is still unknown. Additionally, he deeply explored the nature of things, particularly our own humanity. Taking a clue from the Joker, Da Vinci was simply 'ahead of the curve'.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was – and still remains – a very influential person in the United States.
Born on January 15, 1929, he played a vital role in ending segregation and being a positive influence on many people in the country. He led nonviolent protests that eventually convinced the government to make sweeping changes. King Jr. was granted the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1964.
Martin Luther King Jr. was also inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi, he led targeted, nonviolent resistance against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination in the United States.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely held to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time. He is best known for developing the theory of relativity, he also made important contributions to quantum mechanics, and was thus a central figure in the revolutionary reshaping of the scientific understanding of nature that modern physics accomplished in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Further, his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc², which arises from relativity theory, has been called "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. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World, Einstein was ranked the greatest physicist of all time. His intellectual achievements and originality have made Einstein synonymous with genius.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was a man who changed the way the universe thought, and changed the way the universe acts. He took the world by storm, challenging the way the universe perceives politics, economics, and most importantly, power.
In 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1947, Gandhi Ji was nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize. After India gained independence, Gandhi Ji became a strong choice for this award. He was nominated again in 1948, but a few days before the actual announcement of this award he was assassinated. (read more…)
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of the greatest writers of all time, and his literature still holds a special place in the hearts of many readers. He was a very successful novelist and was also a philosopher known as a deep thinker. He was one of the greatest writers of all time.
Socrates
Louvre Museum, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher. He was born in Athens in 469 BC. He was a student of sophist teachers, and he was the first to define himself as a philosopher. He is also acknowledged to be the founder of the dialectical method.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who, in the late 15th century, discovered that the laws of nature are the same for all moving bodies and that the speed of a falling body is proportional to the distance of its descent. He was the first person to ever use a telescope to look at celestial bodies.
Alexander the great
Alexander the great was one of the most successful military leaders in history. He built an empire that stretched from Greece all the way to India, and still influences the world today.
His love for knowledge, passion for philosophy, and love of literature were no doubt influenced by Aristotle, who cultivated Alexander's intellect and ability to learn quickly. His ability and success demonstrate his rational and intelligent side.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was a famous and influential French politician, general and Emperor of France (aka the ruler) from 1799 to 1815.
He led many successful campaigns in Europe before being forced to island of Elba.
However Napoleon return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 1815 and ruled France for 100 days(20 Mar 1815 – 8 Jul 1815). Napoleon's 'Hundred Days' ended with the Battle of Waterloo in June.
He was exiled and died on the island of Saint Helena in 1821.
Maya Angelou
This image was originally posted to Flickr by John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com at https://flickr.com/photos/36277035@N06/47327455761 (archive).
Maya Angelou was a psychologist, poet and activist best known for her critically acclaimed and best-selling autobiographies, and for her works of non-fiction and fiction. She was the first African-American female to write a bestseller books - 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', 'Still I Rise' and many more. She won a Pulitzer Prize and received three Grammys.
She was a woman who stood up for what she believed in. Her words inspired many people of all races to do better in the world.
Rest will be uploaded later.