18th Century Geniuses

Brilliant minds born in the 18th century

216 Geniuses

18th Century Geniuses

Explore 216 geniuses born in the 18th Century (1700–1799), a transformative era in human knowledge and achievement.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749–1832 · Germany
Faust
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Pierre-Simon Laplace
1749–1827 · France
Predicting the existence of black holes
IQ 195
Read Article · Profile
Baron d'Holbach
1723–1789 · Germany
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Carl Friedrich Gauss
1777–1855 · Germany
Gaussian elimination, also known as "row reduction" or "Gaussian method" • Gauss–Jordan elimination
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Joseph-Louis Lagrange
1736–1813 · Italy
Analytical mechanics, celestial mechanics, mathematical analysis, number theory, theory of equations
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Leonhard Euler
1707–1783 · Switzerland
See full list
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot
1796–1832 · France
Carnot cycle • Carnot efficiency • Carnot theorem • Carnot heat engine
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Arthur Schopenhauer
1788–1860 · Germany
The World as Will and Representation (1818)
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Auguste Comte
1798–1857 · France
Formulating the doctrine of positivism.
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
1775–1854 · Germany
Naturphilosophie
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Humphry Davy
1778–1829 · United Kingdom
Electrolysis, aluminium, sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, magnesium, barium, boron, Davy lamp
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Immanuel Kant
1724–1804 · Germany
Critique of Pure Reason
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Jean-Baptiste-Claude Delisle de Sales
1741–1816 · France
The Philosophy of Nature: Treatise on Human Moral Nature
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
1717–1783 · France
D'Alembert criterion • D'Alembert force • D'Alembert's form of the principle of virtual work
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792–1822 · England
"Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), and “The Mask of Anarchy”
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Roger Joseph Boscovich
1711–1787 · Croatia
Precursor of the atomic theoryFounder of Brera Observatory
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Young
1773–1829 · United Kingdom
Wave theory of light • Double-slit experiment • Astigmatism • Young–Dupré equation • Young–Helmholtz
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Alexander von Humboldt
1769–1859 · Germany
Biogeography, Kosmos (1845–1862), Humboldt Current, magnetic storm, Humboldtian science, Berlin Roma
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
André-Marie Ampère
1775–1836 · France
Ampère's circuital law • Ampère's force law • Ampère's right hand grip rule • Avogadro-Ampère hypoth
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Antoine Lavoisier
1743–1794 · France
Combustion • Identified oxygen • Identified hydrogen • Stoichiometry
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
1788–1827 · France
His research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light.
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
1776–1831 · Denmark
Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome, Father of modern scholarly historiography.
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 · United States
Being the founding father of the USA • Shaping the understanding of electricity • Inventing the ligh
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Carl Linnaeus
1707–1778 · Sweden
Binomial nomenclature Scientific classification Taxonomy
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
David Hume
1711–1776 · Scotland
His highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Denis Diderot
1713–1784 · France
La Religieuse
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Edward Gibbon
1737–1794 · United Kingdom
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
1772–1844 · France
Philosophie anatomique
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
George Green
1793–1841 · United Kingdom
Green measure • Green's function • Green's identities • Green's law • Green's matrix • Green's theor
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Giacomo Leopardi
1798–1837 · Italy
The Idilli
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Hans Christian Ørsted
1777–1851 · Netherlands
Discovery of electromagnetism and Aluminium
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
1778–1868 · United Kingdom
Playing a prominent role in passing the 1832 Reform Act and 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
1749–1791 · France
A leader of the early stages of the French Revolution
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
James Madison
1751–1836 · United States
Being the drafter of the US constitution.
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Jean Sylvain Bailly
1736–1793 · France
Being a political leader of the early part of the French Revolution
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712–1778 · Switzerland
Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Fourier
1768–1830 · France
Fourier number • Fourier series • Fourier transform • Fourier's law of conduction • Fourier–Motzkin
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Jeremy Bentham
1748–1832 · United Kingdom
Being the founder of modern utilitarianism
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Jöns Jacob Berzelius
1779–1848 · Sweden
Atomic weights and Chemical notation
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Lord Byron
1788–1824 · England
Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770–1827 · Germany
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Marquis de Condorcet
1743–1794 · France
Girondin constitutional project and Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Min
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Mary Somerville
1780–1872 · United Kingdom
Self-taught mathematician and polymath; bestselling popularizer of science; acclaimed for her transl
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Napoleon Bonaparte
1769–1821 · France
Military genius • First emperor of france • conqueror
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Paine
1737–1809 · United Kingdom
Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Torbern Bergman
1735–1784 · Sweden
Chemical affinity tables
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
William Pitt the Younger
1759–1806 · United Kingdom
Becoming the youngest prime minister of Great Britain in 1783 at the age of 24
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Adolphe Quetelet
1796–1874 · Belgium
First to apply the statistical normal distribution to characteristics of human populations • Introdu
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Adrien Marie Legendre
1752–1833 · France
Legendre transformation, Legendre polynomials, Legendre transform, Elliptic functions
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Albrecht von Haller
1708–1777 · SZ
Being the father of modern physiology
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Alessandro Volta
1745–1827 · Italy
Invention of the electric cell • Discovery of methane • Volt • Voltage • Voltmeter
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
1707–1788 · France
Histoire Naturelle
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
George Stephenson
1781–1848 · England
'Stephenson gauge
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Germaine de Staël
1766–1817 · France
Delphine (1802) • Corinne (1807) • De l'Allemagne (1813)
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
James Thomson (poet, born 1700)
1700–1748 · Scotland
Writing the lyrics for the song "Rule, Britannia!".
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Jean-François Champollion
1790–1832 · France
Decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
John Witherspoon
1723–1794 · United States
Being a Founding Father of the United States.
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
John Adams
1735–1826 · United States
Being the 2nd president of the United States
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
1778–1850 · France
Gay-Lussac's law
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Luigi Galvani
1737–1798 · Italy
Bioelectricity (animal electricity)
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Xavier Bichat
1771–1802 · France
The concept of tissue
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Mary Shelley
1797–1851
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Michael Faraday
1791–1867 · England
Faraday's law of induction • Faraday effect • Faraday cage • Faraday constant • Faraday cup • Farada
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Robert Peel
1788–1850 · United Kingdom
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Robert Taylor
1784–1844 · England
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772–1834 · England
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Conversation poems, Biographia Literaria
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Wilhelm von Humboldt
1767–1835 · Germany
Founding the Humboldt University of Berlin
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
William Whewell
1794–1866 · United Kingdom
Coining the words scientist and physicist
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Adam Smith
1723–1790 · United Kingdom
Invisible hand theory, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot
1727–1781 · France
Being an early advocate for economic liberalism.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
August von Kotzebue
1761–1819 · Germany
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Benjamin Constant
1767–1830 · Switzerland
Principes de Politique Applicables a Tous les Gouvernements (1810)Adolphe (1816)De la religion consi
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
1736–1806 · France
Coulomb's law
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Charles Babbage
1791–1871 · United Kingdom
Originating the concept of a digital programmable computer.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney
1757–1820 · France
The Ruins: a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires (1791)
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Friedrich August Wolf
1759–1824 · Germany
German classicist; noted as founder of modern philology;
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1742–1799 · Germany
Discovery of tree-like electrical discharge patterns now called Lichtenberg figures.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1770–1831 · Germany
Phenomenology of Spirit
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Georges Cuvier
1769–1832 · France
Establishing the fields of stratigraphy and comparative anatomy, and the principle of faunal success
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais
1782–1854 · France
One of the most influential intellectuals of Restoration France
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Jean-Paul Marat
1743–1793 · France
French politial theorist, physician, and scientist; did 166 experiments on fire and 214 on electrici
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
John Quincy Adams
1767–1848 · United States
Son of John Adams (2nd president); his grandson was Henry Adams, the leading social Newton
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
1709–1751 · France
Machine Man
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Lazare Carnot
1753–1823 · France
Founder of the Ecole Polytechnique; father to Sadi Carnot, initiator of thermodynamics.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Maximilien Robespierre
1758–1794 · France
Playing an important part in the agitation which brought about the fall of the French monarchy on 10
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Novalis
1772–1801 · Germany
Hymns to the Night and The Novices at Sais
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
1753–1793 · France
French lawyer, statesman, and revolutionist.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Robert Southey
1774–1843 · England
English romantic poet
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Chatterton
1752–1770 · United Kingdom
Committed suicide age 17
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Chalmers
1780–1847 · Scotland
On political economy
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Washington Irving
1783–1859 · United States
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet
1788–1856 · United Kingdom
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
1708–1778 · United Kingdom
Serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756–1791 · Austria
Serenade No. 13 “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”, Requiem, The Magic Flute, Clarinet Concerto and Symphony N
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Daniel Webster
1782–1852 · United States
American politician, orator, and lawyer.
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Marquis de Sade
1740–1814 · France
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Edward Jenner
1749–1823 · United Kingdom
Smallpox vaccine and Vaccination
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
François Guizot
1787–1874 · France
French historian, orator, and statesman.
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
William Herschel
1738–1822 · Germany
Discovery of Uranus
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Frederick the Great
1712–1786 · Germany
Prussian king, from 1740 to 1786
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
George Canning
1770–1827 · United Kingdom
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Heinrich Heine
1797–1856 · Germany
Reisebilder • Germany. A Winter's Tale • Atta Troll • Romanzero
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Henri de Saint-Simon
1760–1825 · France
Saint-Simonianism
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Henry Fielding
1707–1754 · United Kingdom
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
James Watt
1736–1819 · Scotland
Watt steam engine
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
1762–1814 · Germany
Founding the philosophical movement known as German idealism,
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
1717–1768 · Germany
Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (The History of Art in Antiquity; 1764)
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Johann Gottfried Herder
1744–1803 · Germany
Volksgeist
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Fouché
1759–1820 · France
French statesman and Napoleon-siding revolutionist.
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Priestley
1733–1804 · England
Discovery of oxygen (O2) and nine other gases (including carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), n
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Carl Maria von Weber
1786–1826 · Germany
German composer; creator of the romantic opera.
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Moses Mendelssohn
1729–1786 · Germany
Haskalah
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Pierre Beaumarchais
1732–1799 · France
Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
1751–1816 · Ireland
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Samuel Johnson
1709–1784 · England
A Dictionary of the English Language • A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Walter Scott
1771–1832 · Scotland
Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, Old Mortality, The Heart of Mid-Lothian and The Bride of Lammermoor,
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Warren Hastings
1732–1818 · United Kingdom
British statesman and general governor of India.
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
William Robertson (historian)
1721–1793 · United Kingdom
Principal of the University of Edinburgh;Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
William Wordsworth
1770–1850 · United Kingdom
Lyrical Ballads
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Adolphe Thiers
1797–1877 · France
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Alphonse de Lamartine
1790–1869 · France
Graziella (1852)
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin
1783–1865 · France
Serving in as President of the Chamber of Deputies for 7 years.
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Antonio Canova
1757–1822 · Italy
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss • The Three Graces • Napoleon as Mars • the Peacemaker • Venus Victri
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Augustin-Louis Cauchy
1789–1857 · France
Binet–Cauchy identity • Bolzano–Cauchy theorem • Cauchy's argument principle • Cauchy–Binet formula
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Charles-Guillaume Étienne
1778–1845 · France
Coining the phrase "If you want something done right, do it yourself"
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Christoph Martin Wieland
1733–1813 · Germany
Oberon and Bildungsroman
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Claude Adrien Helvétius
1715–1771 · France
On Mind
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
François-René de Chateaubriand
1768–1848 · France
Atala • Génie du christianisme • René • Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Haydn
1732–1809 · Austria
Austrian composer.
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Friedrich Schleiermacher
1768–1834 · Germany
His attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianit
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
George Grote
1794–1871 · United Kingdom
History of Greece
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
1729–1781 · Germany
Miss Sara Sampson; Emilia Galotti; Minna von Barnhelm; Nathan the Wise; Laocoön; Hamburg Dramaturgy
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Jacob Grimm
1785–1863 · Germany
Being the editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales.
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
John Hunter (surgeon)
1728–1793 · Scotland
Scientific method in medicineMany discoveries in surgery and medicine
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
John Wesley
1703–1791 · England
Creating the Methodism movement.
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Marie Jacquard
1752–1834 · France
Programmable loom
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759–1797
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Vittorio Alfieri
1749–1803 · Italy
Cleopatra
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
William Ellery Channing
1780–1842 · United States
American Unitarian preacher.
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
William Godwin
1756–1836 · United Kingdom
Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
William Cowper
1731–1800 · United Kingdom
Light Shining out of Darkness
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Alexander Hamilton
1755–1804 · United States
Being one of the founding fathers of the USA.
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Charles James Fox
1749–1806 · United Kingdom
Being in the British Parliament for 38 years
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Daniel O'Connell
1775–1847 · Ireland
Catholic emancipation of 1829
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Georges Danton
1759–1794 · France
Being a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Giacomo Casanova
1725–1798 · Italy
Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life)
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850 · France
La Comédie humaine
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Jacques Necker
1732–1804 · France
Playing a key role in French history before and during the first period of the French Revolution
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Ludwig Tieck
1773–1853 · Germany
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Pierre-Jean de Béranger
1780–1857 · France
"The old flag", 1820
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Robert Fulton
1765–1815 · United States
Steamboat, Nautilus (1800 submarine)
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Simón Bolívar
1783–1830 · VE
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Carlyle
1795–1881 · Scotland
Sartor Resartus • The French Revolution: A History • On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in Hist
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Moore
1779–1852 · Ireland
"The Minstrel Boy" • "The Last Rose of Summer" • Memoirs of Captain Rock
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
William Blake
1757–1827 · United Kingdom
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Four Zoas, Jerusalem, Mil
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
William H. Prescott
1796–1859 · United States
The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (1837), The History of the Conquest
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
William Wilberforce
1759–1833 · United Kingdom
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Thomas Jefferson
1743–1826
3rd President of the United States, The principal author of the Declaration of Independence
IQ 154
Read Article · Profile
Auguste de Marmont
1774–1852 · France
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Charles Lyell
1797–1875 · United Kingdom
Uniformitarianism
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Georges-Louis Le Sage
1724–1803 · Switzerland
Hs theory of gravitation
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
1758–1805 · United Kingdom
Naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
John Franklin
1786–1847 · United Kingdom
English naval officer.
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
John Wilkes
1725–1797 · England
English politician, publicist, and political agitator.
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Jean-de-Dieu Soult
1769–1851 · France
Being one of only six officers in French history to receive the distinction of Marshal General of Fr
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Robert Burns
1759–1796 · Scotland
"Auld Lang Syne" "To a Mouse" "A Man's a Man for A' That" "Ae Fond Kiss" "Scots Wha Hae" "Tam O'Sha
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
William Cobbett
1763–1835 · United Kingdom
Rural Rides
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Andrew Jackson
1767–1845 · United States
Being the 7th president of the United States.
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
1769–1852 · United Kingdom
Commanding forces during the battle of Waterloo.
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Christoph Willibald Gluck
1714–1787 · Germany
"Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Tauris) (1779)
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
1742–1819 · Germany
Leading his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and the Battle o
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Gioachino Rossini
1792–1868 · Italy
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Jean Victor Marie Moreau
1763–1813 · France
French general; helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Joshua Reynolds
1723–1792 · England
English portrait painter.
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Muhammad Ali of Egypt
1769–1849 · MK
Ottoman Albanian commander; became founder of modern Egypt.
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
George Washington
1732–1799 · United States
Being the first president of the United States
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Charles XIV John
1763–1844 · Sweden
Being the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty.
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Robert Clive
1725–1774 · United Kingdom
English general and statesman.
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Alexander Pushkin
1799–1837 · Russia
Eugene Onegin, The Captain's Daughter, Boris Godunov, Ruslan and Ludmila.
Read Article · Profile
Ali Pasha of Ioannina
1740–1822 · AL
Being a ruthless ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
Read Article · Profile
Amedeo Avogadro
1776–1856 · Italy
Avogadro's lawAvogadro constant
Read Article · Profile
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle
1778–1841 · Switzerland
System of Taxonomy and Principle of "Nature's War"
Read Article · Profile
Caroline Herschel
1750–1848 · United Kingdom
Being the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and to hold a government position in Englan
Read Article · Profile
Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen
1791–1860 · Germany
Christianity and Mankind
Read Article · Profile
Daniel Bernoulli
1700–1782 · Switzerland
Bernoulli's principle • Early kinetic theory of gases
Read Article · Profile
Edmund Burke
1729–1797 · Ireland
A Vindication of Natural Society • A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Subli
Read Article · Profile
Vilna Gaon
1720–1797 · BY
Committing the Tanakh to memory by the age of four
Read Article · Profile
Franz Mesmer
1734–1815 · Germany
Animal magnetism
Read Article · Profile
Franz Schubert
1797–1828 · Austria
"Erlkönig" (D. 328), the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout Quintet), the Symphony No. 8 in B m
Read Article · Profile
Friedrich Schiller
1759–1805 · Germany
The Robbers • Don Carlos • Wallenstein Trilogy • Mary Stuart • Ode to Joy • William Tell
Read Article · Profile
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
1724–1803 · Germany
Opening German literature up to exploration outside of French models
Read Article · Profile
Henry Cavendish
1731–1810 · United Kingdom
Discovery of hydrogen and Measuring the Earth's density
Read Article · Profile
James Hutton
1726–1797 · Scotland
Plutonic geologyDeep timeLive Earth
Read Article · Profile
James Cook
1728–1779 · United Kingdom
Achieving the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia
Read Article · Profile
Jane Marcet
1769–1858 · United Kingdom
Author of Conversations on Chemistry, a unique textbook for its time written for people with little
Read Article · Profile
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
1744–1829 · France
Evolution; inheritance of acquired characteristics; Philosophie Zoologique
Read Article · Profile
John Dalton
1766–1844 · United Kingdom
Atomic theory, Law of Multiple Proportions, Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures, Daltonism
Read Article · Profile
John Herschel
1792–1871 · United Kingdom
The invention of photography
Read Article · Profile
John Michell
1724–1793 · United Kingdom
Predicting the existence of black holes, seismology, manufacture of magnets, mass of the Earth
Read Article · Profile
Joseph Henry
1797–1878 · United States
Electromagnetic induction, Inventor of a precursor to the electric doorbell and electric relay
Read Article · Profile
Martin Heinrich Klaproth
1743–1817 · Germany
Discovery of uranium, zirconium, and other elements
Read Article · Profile
Mary Anning
1799–1847 · United Kingdom
Ancient animals, fossils, and paleontology: discovered the first complete specimen of a plesiosaur;
Read Article · Profile
Niccolò Paganini
1782–1840 · Italy
Composed first opera at age eleven
Read Article · Profile
Nicolas Chamfort
1741–1794 · France
Epigrams and aphorisms
Read Article · Profile
Philippe Pinel
1745–1826 · France
Founding scientific psychiatry
Read Article · Profile
Sophie Germain
1776–1831 · France
Elasticity theory and number theory (e.g. Sophie Germain prime numbers)
Read Article · Profile
Victor Cousin
1792–1867 · France
Eclecticism
Read Article · Profile
William Cullen Bryant
1794–1878 · United States
"Thanatopsis"
Read Article · Profile
Émilie du Châtelet
1706–1749 · France
Translation of Newton's Principia into French, natural philosophy which combines Newtonian physics w
Read Article · Profile
André Masséna
1758–1817 · France
Read Article · Profile
François Arago
1786–1853 · France
Rotary polarization • Polarizer • Eddy currents • Fresnel–Arago laws • Arago spot • Arago's rotation
Read Article · Profile
Michel Ney
1769–1815 · France
Read Article · Profile
Oliver Goldsmith
1728–1774 · Ireland
The Vicar of Wakefield, "The Deserted Village", The Good-Natur'd Man, She Stoops to Conquer
Read Article · Profile
Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
1764–1830 · France
Read Article · Profile
Joachim Murat
1767–1815 · France
French Revolutionary Wars
Read Article · Profile
Jane Austen
1775–1817 · England
Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816).
Read Article · Profile

Explore More Lists

Geniuses Who Died Young (43)Female Geniuses Throughout History (92)Nobel Prize-Winning Geniuses (88)Ancient Geniuses (74)Renaissance Geniuses (95)Living Geniuses Today (207)Geniuses with the Highest IQ Scores (16)Polymath Geniuses (151)

Frequently Asked Questions

How many geniuses were born in the 18th Century?

Geniuses.Club features 216 geniuses born during the 18th Century.

LE TEST GRATUIT
Et le vôtre ?

Vingt questions, huit minutes au chronomètre et un centile mesuré face à tous ceux qui l’ont passé. Sans inscription.

Passer le test de QI →

Who was the greatest genius of the 18th Century?

The 18th Century produced many extraordinary minds. Explore the full list to discover who made the greatest impact.

What major fields emerged in the 18th Century?

The 18th Century saw transformative developments across science, mathematics, art, philosophy, and technology.

Discover history's greatest minds — biographies, IQ scores, quotes, and more.

Explore All 1,100+ Geniuses →