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?

[Technomancer]

Sir Isaac Newton
Frederic Bastiat
Martin Luther
The Apostle Paul
Mother Theresa
Corrie Ten Boom
Thomas Jefferson

[Iggy Hazard]

Winston Churchill. While everone else was kissing Hitler's ass (especially that pansy Neville Chamberlain), Churchill raised his Clenched Fist in Defiance. President Roosevelt would have remained an isolationist if not for Churchill. However, Churchill himself was also an oppressor, having sent the Black-and-Tans into Ireland to terrorize Irish citizens into submission through institutionalized rape and murder, so he was really a hypocrite. So I only partially admire him, only for his defiance against Hitler. He also had an artistic bent (like me). So did Hitler, but Churchill was better. More organic, less rigid.

Robert E. Lee (my ancestor). Best military leader in US history. Formerly with the Union and believed in Abolition, but was loyal to his blood and would not betray his family. Imagine the internal conflict he had to endure.

[Kris]

Jack Reacher (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.), a fictional character who appears as the protagonist in a series of novels by Lee Child.

[Fanowene]

I basically admire people who can do something I couldn't (people stuff, on the spot cleverness that goes beyond sarcasm, crazy creativity, etc...). And then I realize that we are all different and have our own set of talents, and that admiration sort of fades away and turns into envy.

But then there are those people who truly worked hard to be where they are now, the people who stick with their vision and succeed. Those people I truly admire.

[Dakotahlp]

I admire Rowan, those who "carry a message to Garcia"----Elbert Hubbard, 1899

[MikeAZ]

George Washington for giving away power
James Dobson for focusing on the family and teaching so many other how

[BryyM]

The one's that comes to mind is Erwin Rommel and Horatio Hornblower(fictional).

[Kisai]

Liu Pang, founder of the Han Dynasty. Started as a commoner and became emperor of China. Won the throne not because he was the greatest at anything, but because he didn't give up.

[Mogura]

Edmund Hillary...

[LadyInHeels]

People that search for, or reveal, truth.

I do as well, there is no goal more noble than to search for the truth

[jcaraway]

WHAT?! No one said Charles Darwin?! He was one of the most important men to ever live and his theory unified biology and opened the way to understanding life on our planet.

[elsdfr]

My Dad and any professional cyclist. Seriously is is SO hard to keep going sometimes, I don't know how they do it.

[BlackMita]

I admire people that answer questions I didn't ask.

[curiousgeorge01]

Jackie Chan, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffett. I tend to like people who have level heads and are masters of their fields.

[Tocsin]

Several people here have already mentioned nmes that I would put on my list, if I were making one.

One name that comes to mind (that I haven't seen here so far) is one that I was reminded of on another thread:

Dr. Seuss (The Sneetches, in particular)

In general terms: anyone who teaches (truth and tolerance - not falsehoods, fear, and bigtory); anyone who enlightens; anyone who liberates or defends the rights of others; anyone who uses their mind to overcome their ignorance, rather than embracing and extolling ignorance as a virtue.

Another addendum:

Anyone who has the courage to speak the truth, regardless of how unpopular it is or what it might end up costing them.

[Nemesis]

Anyone who is able to fall from grace, dust themselves off, and keep going.

[tp6626]

I admire people that answer questions I didn't ask.
I'm fine thanks!

Do you admire me now? :)

[CycleBreaker]

Tesla's the first person that comes to my mind. And Mother Theresa. Both for different reasons.

[Muadib]

Shakespeare's Henry V (King Harry)

[KalaKesar]

South African Cobus Claassens, security contractor.
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What some men can't do with an outfitted army, this man can do with a sharpened stick. Very demure, small in stature, softly spoken. A powerhouse.