Favourite Historical Figure

[ZZoMBiE13]

Pablo Picasso.

A lot of people think of only his abstract work that he's most popular for, but the guy was a master of every style he bothered to attempt. And he became a master by constant practice and dedication. Of course in his "real life" he was a jackass from what I hear, but his talent, skill, tenacity and passion to learn, challenge and improve not only his skills but the art world he was a part of is worthy of respect and admiration.

 

[Darkintent]

I know its a bland choice but my fav is Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
1874-1965
One of the most well known Prime Minister of the UK the man inspired courage and determination not only in his own people but nearly all mankind to this day. True he may of been a poor poliction but thats not why the man was put in power. He was put in power because he knew the right words for the right time and he helped the UK through some of its darkest hours during WWII
Here are a few of his best quotes

"Never before has so much been owed by so many to so few" (churchill commenting on the Battle of Britan
"We make a living from what we get, we make a life by what we give"
"It is a mistake to look to far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grabbed one link at a time"
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it"
"All Great things are simple, and many can be expressed with simple words : freedom, justice,honour, duty, mercy, hope"

And perhaps one of the greatest quote known to man next to I have a dream...

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender"

 

[Lt_Bromhead]

Horatio Nelson? Just look at the effect his presence had on his troops..... and Lady Hamilton.....


(Sorry, forgot to quote Darth Mobius)

 

[andyandy]

Winston Churchill, Erwin Rommel.

 

[gh0ti]

My favourite historical figure is the much-maligned King Stephen of England. He reigned from 1135-1154 (his death) and presided over a period commonly known as 'The Anarchy'.

He essentially stole the throne from his cousin, Matilda, and then fought her, and later her son (the future Henry II), for nineteen years on and off. During this time he also had wars with the Scots and the Welsh, overhauled the system of land ownership in England and tried vainly to establish his own dynasty on the throne.

Because he was ultimately unsuccessful, many historians have consigned him to the ranks of supposed 'failure' kings. But in truth, he was a very intelligent man, of enormous charisma, revered for his generosity, bravery and skill at arms. He died suddenly of indeterminate cause (he was nearly 60), cementing the collapse of Norman domination in north-west Europe and the rise of the Angevin Empire.

He just seems to have been an almost ideal medieval leader, undone by impossible circumstance.

I would link to the wiki article on him, but it's a pretty poor one, reliant on a lot of out-of-date info.

 

[doctorwhofan]

Tolkien-so many games would not exist without this man
Teddy Roosevelt- always liked him and he created parks
Einstien- not for being a genius, but forbeing a human genius
DaVinci- I would have LOVED to talk to him! What a clever man!

 

[Dommyboy]

Jesus. I always found him to be quite the interesting chap.

 

[xxDarlenexx]

Nicola Tesla 1856-1943, true genius, invented AC power and dozens of other world changing electrical and mechanical devices.
If you don't know of him google or wikipedia...
He had an amazing way of looking at problems, he could solve engineering issues in his head before he put pen to paper. He was famous for making claims considered to be ridiculous but then achieving them.
Sadly due to fire, thieft and because he simply didn't document everything he did many of his inventions were lost or cannot not be fully recreated to this day. This has led to a whole industry of guess work and rumour about what he was possible of. Considering what he was able to achieve it does make it hard to filter rumour from fact.
He never cared about money, only on the next project. He died a pauper when theortically he should have ended up one of the wealthiest men in history.

Not my only favorite but you totally beat me to it! TESLA FOREVER!!!!

 

[Theon Tonarim]

I have a deep love for the Gallic general Vercingetorix.

He lived from 82 B.C. to 46 B.C., and was the leader of the Gauls at the end of their rebellion of against the Roman Empire. He was one of the last people to stand up to Julius Caesar before he became dictator, and was able to inflict heavy losses to his troops before finally falling to a siege at Alesia.

Vercingetorix is always compared to people like William Wallace and George Washington; he was a noble rebel who stood up for the independence of his free territory, and united almost all of Gaul (current day France, Germany, and everything in between) in battle.

He probably died cold and alone, strangled in his prison cell...

He was paraded through the streets of Rome during Caesar's Gallic triumph and strangled at the zenith of the procession.
I know this because my favorite historical figure defeated yours.

 

[ElderScribe]

Billy the Kid, Frointer "Outlaw"

Real name (supposedly)Henry McCarty

Alises: Henry Antrim,William H. Bonney

November 23, 1859 ? July 14, 1881

The reason why i like him is that his life has been blown so far out of porportion that i doubt that we'll ever really know what really went on, thanks to so-called fronteer historians who look at fronteer living with an absurd romanticism that would make most intelligent people want to strangle them.

The Lincoln County War as you probably saw in the movie "Young Guns" was at least partially true, Billy did not however shoot Sherrif Brady once in the head, rather he was gunned down by several members of the Regulators.

It simply came down to revenge, John Tunstall was a small time cattle rancher who just wanted to make a living and was brutally gunned down for it because he and a few other ranchers wanted to break up the Murphy/Dolan hold on Lincoln County, the Regulators acted in a manner i believe that showed true loyalty.

Billy also wasn't one to take any guff from anyone although the amount of people he actually killed for it is a gross exaggeration, he was also extremely capable of escaping prison, having done it at least three times in his life (so they say).

Lastly his death has always been a source of debate, Pat Garrett (at one time Billy's friend) having killed Billy alone, in a dark room by shooting him in the back, maybe it did happen this way, who knows.

 

[Zildjin81]

Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777-1855

For his incredible math talent.

 

[cthulhu257]

It's a bit strange, but my favorite would probably be Grigori Rasputin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin]. Just look up the way he died, and more importantly, the things that didn't kill him.

 

[li-ion]

Alexander the Great.
Lived 356 to 323 B.C. and was an ancient Greek King. He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient greek. Reasons for his death at 33 are not certain, could have been a relapse of malaria, sickness following a drinking party or poisoning.

I always take a big risk when I say this, and a lot of people call me out on it so I tend to try and cover my ass before I say it. First and foremost let me say that I feel a lot of the policies and methods were flat out WRONG and I would definitely have gone a different way.

I'm not going to say the name because that's just begging for someone to flame me, but he pulled an entire nation out of a depression (and they were hit *hard*) with ideas of patriotism and a better world. He gave them an enemy, and he built them an army and for a while life was good. He was so motivational that he consumed almost an entire continent before he was stopped, and he survived at least 5 assassination attempts (including one really big bomb).

Pity he was an ass-hole, but he did - in the (butchered) words of JK Rowling - Great things. Terrible, but great.

Read 'The Meaning of Hitler' by Sebastian Haffner. It can be argued if he really did something 'great' or if his biggest achievements were often against little or no resistance. I consider him a vulture, not someone who buildt something great.

 

[Gitsnik]

Read 'The Meaning of Hitler' by Sebastian Haffner. It can be argued if he really did something 'great' or if his biggest achievements were often against little or no resistance.

I've read it. During my 4 years of study I read over 500 books on the topic, and watched all the great propaganda movies (Leni's The Triumph of the Will sits on my shelf in both Original German and sub-titled versions) for both sides. My opinion was formulated this way after all that time. The Harry Potter quote has merely become a convenient way of phrasing in a very broad manner my opinion of the man.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Niccolò Machiavelli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiaveli

"Since love and fear can hardly coexist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."

"It is not titles that honour men, but men that honour titles."

"The prince must be a fox... to recognize the traps and a lion to frighten the wolves."

I may have got these a bit wrong, but you can clearly see that this giy was awesome.

 

[captainwolfos]

William Shakespeare.
Purely because he's the only person, second probably only to Adolf Hitler, that everyone, especially GCSE students want to personally bring back from the dead to have a shot at killing him themselves.

 

[UpSkirtDistress]

I'd have to say Stalin for the dept of his paranoia his exemplary economic reform and his legacy of cruelty and destruction.