Black and white image of English philosopher and political theorist John Stuart Mill.

John Stuart Mill

(1806 - 1873)

Zhenzong

(968 - 1022)

Austro-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875 - 1926)

Miyamoto Musashi

(1584 - 1645)

Black and white photograph of English poet and librarian Philip Larkin.

Philip Larkin

(1922 - 1985)

Woman wearing a shawl and writing while seated in a chair

Catharine Beecher

(1800 - 1878)

Masuda Sayo

(1925 - 2008)

Photograph of President Abraham Lincoln sitting in a chair.

Abraham Lincoln

(1809 - 1865)

St. Benedict

Saint Benedict

(c. 480 - c. 547)

Man in gray shirt in front of bookshelf

Ian Altman

Dorothy Butler

(1925 - 2015)

Kim Il-Sung

(1912 - 1994)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Illustration of a man in fancy dress

Cassiodorus

(c. 490 - c. 585)

Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician Moses Maimonides.

Moses Maimonides

(1135 - 1204)

Louis Sullivan

(1856 - 1924)

Theodore Dwight Weld

(1803 - 1895)

Aiping Mu

Elena Ferrante

Betsy DeVos

Garrett Epps

British writer Muriel Spark.

Muriel Spark

(1918 - 2006)

Black and white photograph of a dark-haired man in a white shirt holding a newspaper

Cesar Chavez

(1927 - 1993)

Young woman wearing black seated on a couch

Eleni Schirmer

Aelfric

(c. 955 - c. 1010)

Elfriede Jelinek

Rudolf Steiner

(1861 - 1925)

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi

(c. 923 - 1023)

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

(1754 - 1838)

Gabriel García Márquez

(1927 - 2014)

Saadi

(c. 1213 - c. 1291)

William Wellington Gqoba

(1840 - 1888)

German writer Friedrich Schiller.

Friedrich Schiller

(1759 - 1805)

John of Salisbury

(c. 1115 - 1180)

Young man in tie and jacket

Owen Johnson

(1878 - 1952)

Natalia Ginzburg

(1916 - 1991)

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

(1746 - 1827)

Samuel Richardson

(1689 - 1761)

Photograph of German literary critic Walter Benjamin.

Walter Benjamin

(1892 - 1940)

Chinese Communist Party

Seated woman wearing glasses and holding up a cigarette

Helen DeWitt

Rabindranath Tagore

(1861 - 1941)

Mary Kawena Pukui

(1895 - 1986)

Sculpture of Isocrates at the Parc de Versailles

Isocrates

(463 BC - 338 BC)

Woman reading at a desk

Maria Montessori

(1870 - 1952)

Woman standing against a wall with her arms crossed

Fleur Jaeggy

John Dury

(1596 - 1680)

Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig

(1881 - 1942)

Alan Bennett

Mabel Powers

(1872 - 1966)

Black and white photograph of Friedrich Nietzsche with a huge mustache.

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900)

Walter Gropius

(1883 - 1969)

Cheikh Hamidou Kane

Patrick Traherne

(1885 - 1917)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Kim Man-jung

(1637 - 1692)

Smiling man in blue shirt and gray pants

Paul Tough

Sepia image of a woman with head veiled

Julia Ward Howe

(1819 - 1910)

Norman Douglas

(1868 - 1952)

American writer Saul Bellow.

Saul Bellow

(1915 - 2005)

Agnes Callard

Margaret Haley

(1861 - 1935)

Moudhy Al-Rashid

Juan Luis Vives

(1492 - 1540)

Young man in collarless jacket seated

Andrey Platonov

(1899 - 1951)

Bust of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

(121 - 180)

American sociologist and reformer W. E. B. Du Bois.

W.E.B. Du Bois

(1868 - 1963)

Jotirao Phule

(1827 - 1890)

Kukai

(774 - 835)

Michelle Kuo

Fidel Castro

(1926 - 2016)

Man in a dark blue suit jacket seated at a desk

Michael D. Hattem

Jeff Bryant

Audre Lorde

(1934 - 1992)

Photograph of English novelist and satirist T. H. White.

T.H. White

(1906 - 1964)

Liu Xiang

(77 BC - 6 BC)