Who is your favorite person from history?

[Duster]

I personally am broken between Stilicho Flavius (Roman General, one of the last before Rome's downfall) and Andrew Jackson(early united states president, responsible for manifest destiny). Both seemed to acknowledge their power and they burdened themselves with as much as they could. I really admire both of their contributions to society.

What about you guys?

 

[Lilani]

I'm a fan of Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain. Extremely witty, a believer in civil rights, he believed in an almighty God yet he was rather against the idea of organized religion and even didn't believe all that was in the "holy scriptures." I think it's funny how beloved he is by conservative Americans when for his time he was about as liberal as you could get.

I like the idea of Theodore Roosevelt in theory, but he isn't totally endeared to me because as charismatic as he was, he was also a flaming racist. And while the excuse for him often is "well everybody was racist back then," I'd like to refer back to Mark Twain. A man just as colorful if not more, without all the racism.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Ulysses S. Grant, a sincere man in an insincere time. Good General, Fantastic Person, Catastrophically Incompetent Politician. The man was everything.

That, and Mark Twain liked the man, and supposedly had absolutely nothing bad to say about him. And from my understanding, that's something in itself.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I always liked Alexander the Great, for Great is the best description of his life. Macedon at the time was a tiny nation, but his father Phillip II put it on the map with his military conquests, and Alexander took the army he was given and went to the extreme.

Think about it. More than once, his army of roughly 40,000 soldiers defeated forces more than twice that size, through brilliant maneuvers and taking advantage of his surroundings. Some accounts say that in the battle of Issus the Persian emperor Darius III had over 100,000 men, and Alexander still routed his opponent and personally forced Darius to flee the field, after which he was captured and executed. He conquered the largest empire in existence and even took his men all the way into India. While his campaign stalled at that point, it was only because his forces were stretched so thin that he decided to turn around and consolidate his vast empire. Oh yeah, and he did all this as a man in his teens and twenties.

Judging a man to be great based only on military prowess and how many people he killed may be a bit grim, but he was the most successful general in history to this day, and his conquering of most of the known world was what created Hellenic culture. Alexander's strategy is still studied by modern commanders. His mark on the world is undeniable.

 

[Eddie the head]

I rather like Sun Tzu due to some of his stances of war. Basically it's a necessary evil that should be dealt with quickly. And that the best battles are the ones you never fight. But that's just a spur of the moment thing, and it's based mostly on second hand accounts. I should really bother to read "The art of War."

Edit. Also Issac Asimov was an interesting fellow. Wicked smart, witty as all hell, and an accomplished writer and scientist.

And I rather like Hypatia of Alexandria if only for this one quote.

Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them.

Of course that could just the the person this quote is attributed to.

 

[The Egalitarian]

Favourite person in history is, in my opinion, John Locke.

His ideals and thoughts have transcended throughout history, with a lot of theories being still relevant in modern philosophy today. Whilst a lot of his ideals may have also been transcended and worked upon throughout of the course of history since, his influence upon future writers such as Voltaire and Rousseau clearly gives him a mark up in my opinion; both as a person and as a amateur Philosopher and Historian.

 

[TheRiddler]

I personally am broken between Stilicho Flavius (Roman General, one of the last before Rome's downfall) and Andrew Jackson(early united states president, responsible for manifest destiny). Both seemed to acknowledge their power and they burdened themselves with as much as they could.

Can't speak for Flavius, but I'm pretty sure Jackson doesn't really deserve the "hero" status. I mean, what was he known for?
-Winning a battle after the war had ended.
-Ignoring the mandate of the Supreme Court and using federal power to remove Native Americans from their land.
-Ending the Era of Good Feelings (political unity from about ), establishing the Democratic Party (which was an entirely different beast than the one we've seen from about 1968-present day)

None of what he did could be considered unambiguously good, and a lot of what he did, I'd say, was downright destructive.

OT: Clarence Darrow was pretty incredible. As a defense lawyer, he took on cases in support of evolution being taught in school and against a white mob that had attempted to drive a black family out of the neighborhood.

I'll also definitely echo the above and say that Mark Twain was a great author, and unlike some other great early American authors (looking at you, Nathaniel Hawthorne), had a sharp sense of humor.