Who do you admire?

[Max T]

Be it an individual or a group, dead or alive... and why do you admire them?


At no risk of skewing other's responses and to get the ball rolling...

I admire professional road cyclists.
They only develop the stamina to haul themselves up several mountains in a day by systematically pushing their bodies through the pain barrier during training.
The mind-over-body discipline they have is incredible.

[OneBadMother]

I admire artists and craftsmen to some degree. I've always wanted to be able to master a skill like that, but I've never been able to. My world is too much in my head.

I also tend to admire very clever people, especially if they're very clever, skilled, and unconventional all at once.

[Ijz]

All the great scientific minds of our past. What would life have been like without them.

And Derren Brown....... :thumbsup:

[Bossy Mom]

Isaac Newton
Aristotle
Winston Churchill
William Shakespeare
Elizabeth I
Galileo
Leonardo DaVinci
Michelangelo
Cicero
Theodore Roseveldt
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
Ayn Rand
Mrs. Irene Smith, my high school English teacher
Mr. Jack Dickson, my high school speech and drama teacher
Mrs. Rose, my third grade teacher
My wonderful parents
Frederic Bastiat
Thomas Paine
Martin Luther

[Rei]

Elizabeth I was probably the first person that came to mind...
a high school classmate/buddy

and probably a whole lot of people I read up on in the past that I can't remember just now...

[chocky]

This is a story I was told, and I have no name for the character, or certainty he was real, but...

The hills were all bare where this man lived, and dry. He was old and remembered a time when the hillsides were covered in trees and water was plentiful. He lived alone and had no-one to please in his old age but himself, and no family to leave behind. He took to wandering with a sack of walnuts, and everywhere he went he planted them, leaving whole hills sown with walnuts and replenishing his sack where he could as he traveled.

He wandered this way for years, eventually re-passing old routes and seeing young trees sprouting. At some stage he passed away. The passage of time saw whole forests of walnuts grow in his wake, and villages revitalised and springs return to flowing, and though it looks now to the casual eye like the hand of nature has always prevailed in this little corner of the Earth, it is down to the hand of one man who took it upon himself to repair the damages caused by others.

When I imagine the silence and dignity of such sombre great trees, and the coolness of a forest, and imagine the likeness of this man's character to the forests he created, it is almost enough to bring a tear to my eye.

He, to my mind (and anyone else who plants a tree with nothing to gain but the proper dignity of life), is truly admirable.

[Persephone]

Anyone who fights for what he believes in (in a peaceful way, of course)

[Doppelbock]

Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther immediately come to mind.

DB

[Firelie]

I admire anyone who can take an idea and make it into something tangible.

[lampmeister]

Anyone for Friedrich Nietzsche?

I agree with the road-race cyclists too.

[BadgerDad]

People that search for, or reveal, truth.

[prometheus]

Thomas Jefferson
Ayn Rand
Lysander Spooner
Henry David Thoreau
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Albert Gallatin
Thomas Paine
Hugh Henry Brackenridge

[banzai]

This is a story I was told, and I have no name for the character, or certainty he was real, but...

Sounds strikingly familiar to Johnny Appleseed. :)

[chocky]

Sounds strikingly familiar to Johnny Appleseed. :)

Thanks, I was going to mention him too, but decided to let the lesser known example stand alone. I admire people that plant seeds! (Literal and figurative.) :)

[Hdier]

Are we including fictional people? If so, then Vanyel Ashkevron from Mercedes' Lackey's Last Herald Mage Trilogy.

Also, anyone who gets a moral thing done, morally.

[elsdfr]

Jesus; I mean the fact that he's made people believe what they do and for so long... that in itself should be considered a miracle.

[JusVisiting]

My mother and family. They are all really great people. People that are strong, hard working, honest, and wise. People that would give you the shirt off their back if you were in need; and people that would stomp you into the ground if you tried to steal/connive the shirt off their back. People who are brave and willing to fight the good fight. Creative and clever people with the work ethic to see their projects through to completion.

[Laura_Palmer]

Hunter S. Thompson - I admire how he became a cult figure through his unique writing style and strong personality.

[Hypomanic]

People that search for, or reveal, truth.

Completely.

[True Brit]

The Father
The Son
The Holy Ghost
Ashley Hall... great singer and pretty girl that is a friend that goes to my school. She even has her own album out now locally!
Chuck Norris
George Washington
Ronald Reagan
George Patton
John Hagee
Francis Drake
Mr. T
Billy Graham
John Wayne
Joan of Arc
St. Thomas Aquinas
Dante Alighieri
John Milton
Stormin' Norman
Barry White

[prometheus]

Hunter S. Thompson - I admire how he became a cult figure through his unique writing style and strong personality.

Hunter would have to ask...........On yea baby?