How many geniuses were born in the 18th Century?

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

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.

18th Century Geniuses | Geniuses.Club

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749–1832 · Germany

Faust

IQ 200

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Pierre-Simon Laplace

1749–1827 · France

Predicting the existence of black holes

IQ 195

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Baron d'Holbach

1723–1789 · Germany

IQ 190

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Carl Friedrich Gauss

1777–1855 · Germany

Gaussian elimination, also known as "row reduction" or "Gaussian method" • Gauss–Jordan elimination

IQ 190

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Joseph-Louis Lagrange

1736–1813 · Italy

Analytical mechanics, celestial mechanics, mathematical analysis, number theory, theory of equations

IQ 190

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Leonhard Euler

1707–1783 · Switzerland

See full list

IQ 190

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Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

1796–1832 · France

Carnot cycle • Carnot efficiency • Carnot theorem • Carnot heat engine

IQ 190

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Arthur Schopenhauer

1788–1860 · Germany

The World as Will and Representation (1818)

IQ 185

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Auguste Comte

1798–1857 · France

Formulating the doctrine of positivism.

IQ 185

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Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

1775–1854 · Germany

Naturphilosophie

IQ 185

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Humphry Davy

1778–1829 · United Kingdom

Electrolysis, aluminium, sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, magnesium, barium, boron, Davy lamp

IQ 185

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Immanuel Kant

1724–1804 · Germany

Critique of Pure Reason

IQ 185

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Jean-Baptiste-Claude Delisle de Sales

1741–1816 · France

The Philosophy of Nature: Treatise on Human Moral Nature

IQ 185

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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

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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

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Roger Joseph Boscovich

1711–1787 · Croatia

Precursor of the atomic theoryFounder of Brera Observatory

IQ 185

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Thomas Young

1773–1829 · United Kingdom

Wave theory of light • Double-slit experiment • Astigmatism • Young–Dupré equation • Young–Helmholtz

IQ 185

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Alexander von Humboldt

1769–1859 · Germany

Biogeography, Kosmos (1845–1862), Humboldt Current, magnetic storm, Humboldtian science, Berlin Roma

IQ 180

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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

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Antoine Lavoisier

1743–1794 · France

Combustion • Identified oxygen • Identified hydrogen • Stoichiometry

IQ 180

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Augustin-Jean Fresnel

1788–1827 · France

His research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light.

IQ 180

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Barthold Georg Niebuhr

1776–1831 · Denmark

Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome, Father of modern scholarly historiography.

IQ 180

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Benjamin Franklin

1706–1790 · United States

Being the founding father of the USA • Shaping the understanding of electricity • Inventing the ligh

IQ 180

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Carl Linnaeus

1707–1778 · Sweden

Binomial nomenclature Scientific classification Taxonomy

IQ 180

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David Hume

1711–1776 · Scotland

His highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism

IQ 180

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Edward Gibbon

1737–1794 · United Kingdom

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

IQ 180

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Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

1772–1844 · France

Philosophie anatomique

IQ 180

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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

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Hans Christian Ørsted

1777–1851 · Netherlands

Discovery of electromagnetism and Aluminium

IQ 180

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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

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Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

1749–1791 · France

A leader of the early stages of the French Revolution

IQ 180

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James Madison

1751–1836 · United States

Being the drafter of the US constitution.

IQ 180

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Jean Sylvain Bailly

1736–1793 · France

Being a political leader of the early part of the French Revolution

IQ 180

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712–1778 · Switzerland

Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract

IQ 180

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Joseph Fourier

1768–1830 · France

Fourier number • Fourier series • Fourier transform • Fourier's law of conduction • Fourier–Motzkin

IQ 180

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Jeremy Bentham

1748–1832 · United Kingdom

Being the founder of modern utilitarianism

IQ 180

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Jöns Jacob Berzelius

1779–1848 · Sweden

Atomic weights and Chemical notation

IQ 180

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Lord Byron

1788–1824 · England

Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

IQ 180

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Ludwig van Beethoven

1770–1827 · Germany

IQ 180

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Marquis de Condorcet

1743–1794 · France

Girondin constitutional project and Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Min

IQ 180

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Mary Somerville

1780–1872 · United Kingdom

Self-taught mathematician and polymath; bestselling popularizer of science; acclaimed for her transl

IQ 180

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Napoleon Bonaparte

1769–1821 · France

Military genius • First emperor of france • conqueror

IQ 180

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Thomas Paine

1737–1809 · United Kingdom

Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783

IQ 180

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Torbern Bergman

1735–1784 · Sweden

Chemical affinity tables

IQ 180

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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

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Adolphe Quetelet

1796–1874 · Belgium

First to apply the statistical normal distribution to characteristics of human populations • Introdu

IQ 175

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Adrien Marie Legendre

1752–1833 · France

Legendre transformation, Legendre polynomials, Legendre transform, Elliptic functions

IQ 175

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Albrecht von Haller

1708–1777 · SZ

Being the father of modern physiology

IQ 175

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Alessandro Volta

1745–1827 · Italy

Invention of the electric cell • Discovery of methane • Volt • Voltage • Voltmeter

IQ 175

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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

1707–1788 · France

Histoire Naturelle

IQ 175

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Germaine de Staël

1766–1817 · France

Delphine (1802) • Corinne (1807) • De l'Allemagne (1813)

IQ 175

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James Thomson (poet, born 1700)

1700–1748 · Scotland

Writing the lyrics for the song "Rule, Britannia!".

IQ 175

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Jean-François Champollion

1790–1832 · France

Decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs

IQ 175

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John Witherspoon

1723–1794 · United States

Being a Founding Father of the United States.

IQ 175

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John Adams

1735–1826 · United States

Being the 2nd president of the United States

IQ 175

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Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

1778–1850 · France

Gay-Lussac's law

IQ 175

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Luigi Galvani

1737–1798 · Italy

Bioelectricity (animal electricity)

IQ 175

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Xavier Bichat

1771–1802 · France

The concept of tissue

IQ 175

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Mary Shelley

1797–1851

IQ 175

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Michael Faraday

1791–1867 · England

Faraday's law of induction • Faraday effect • Faraday cage • Faraday constant • Faraday cup • Farada

IQ 175

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Robert Peel

1788–1850 · United Kingdom

IQ 175

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Robert Taylor

1784–1844 · England

IQ 175

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772–1834 · England

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Conversation poems, Biographia Literaria

IQ 175

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Wilhelm von Humboldt

1767–1835 · Germany

Founding the Humboldt University of Berlin

IQ 175

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William Whewell

1794–1866 · United Kingdom

Coining the words scientist and physicist

IQ 175

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Adam Smith

1723–1790 · United Kingdom

Invisible hand theory, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments

IQ 170

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Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

1727–1781 · France

Being an early advocate for economic liberalism.

IQ 170

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August von Kotzebue

1761–1819 · Germany

IQ 170

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Benjamin Constant

1767–1830 · Switzerland

Principes de Politique Applicables a Tous les Gouvernements (1810)Adolphe (1816)De la religion consi

IQ 170

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Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

1736–1806 · France

Coulomb's law

IQ 170

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Charles Babbage

1791–1871 · United Kingdom

Originating the concept of a digital programmable computer.

IQ 170

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Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney

1757–1820 · France

The Ruins: a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires (1791)

IQ 170

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Friedrich August Wolf

1759–1824 · Germany

German classicist; noted as founder of modern philology;

IQ 170

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

1742–1799 · Germany

Discovery of tree-like electrical discharge patterns now called Lichtenberg figures.

IQ 170

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

1770–1831 · Germany

Phenomenology of Spirit

IQ 170

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Georges Cuvier

1769–1832 · France

Establishing the fields of stratigraphy and comparative anatomy, and the principle of faunal success

IQ 170

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Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais

1782–1854 · France

One of the most influential intellectuals of Restoration France

IQ 170

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Jean-Paul Marat

1743–1793 · France

French politial theorist, physician, and scientist; did 166 experiments on fire and 214 on electrici

IQ 170

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John Quincy Adams

1767–1848 · United States

Son of John Adams (2nd president); his grandson was Henry Adams, the leading social Newton

IQ 170

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Julien Offray de La Mettrie

1709–1751 · France

Machine Man

IQ 170

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Lazare Carnot

1753–1823 · France

Founder of the Ecole Polytechnique; father to Sadi Carnot, initiator of thermodynamics.

IQ 170

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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

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Novalis

1772–1801 · Germany

Hymns to the Night and The Novices at Sais

IQ 170

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Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud

1753–1793 · France

French lawyer, statesman, and revolutionist.

IQ 170

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Robert Southey

1774–1843 · England

English romantic poet

IQ 170

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Thomas Chatterton

1752–1770 · United Kingdom

Committed suicide age 17

IQ 170

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Washington Irving

1783–1859 · United States

IQ 170

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Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

1788–1856 · United Kingdom

Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic

IQ 170

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William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

1708–1778 · United Kingdom

Serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain

IQ 170

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756–1791 · Austria

Serenade No. 13 “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”, Requiem, The Magic Flute, Clarinet Concerto and Symphony N

IQ 170

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Daniel Webster

1782–1852 · United States

American politician, orator, and lawyer.

IQ 165

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Marquis de Sade

1740–1814 · France

IQ 165

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Edward Jenner

1749–1823 · United Kingdom

Smallpox vaccine and Vaccination

IQ 165

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François Guizot

1787–1874 · France

French historian, orator, and statesman.

IQ 165

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Frederick the Great

1712–1786 · Germany

Prussian king, from 1740 to 1786

IQ 165

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George Canning

1770–1827 · United Kingdom

IQ 165

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Heinrich Heine

1797–1856 · Germany

Reisebilder • Germany. A Winter's Tale • Atta Troll • Romanzero

IQ 165

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Henry Fielding

1707–1754 · United Kingdom

IQ 165

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Johann Gottlieb Fichte

1762–1814 · Germany

Founding the philosophical movement known as German idealism,

IQ 165

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Johann Joachim Winckelmann

1717–1768 · Germany

Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (The History of Art in Antiquity; 1764)

IQ 165

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Johann Gottfried Herder

1744–1803 · Germany

Volksgeist

IQ 165

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Joseph Fouché

1759–1820 · France

French statesman and Napoleon-siding revolutionist.

IQ 165

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Joseph Priestley

1733–1804 · England

Discovery of oxygen (O2) and nine other gases (including carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), n

IQ 165

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Carl Maria von Weber

1786–1826 · Germany

German composer; creator of the romantic opera.

IQ 165

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Pierre Beaumarchais

1732–1799 · France

Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable

IQ 165

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Richard Brinsley Sheridan

1751–1816 · Ireland

IQ 165

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Samuel Johnson

1709–1784 · England

A Dictionary of the English Language • A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland

IQ 165

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Walter Scott

1771–1832 · Scotland

Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, Old Mortality, The Heart of Mid-Lothian and The Bride of Lammermoor,

IQ 165

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Warren Hastings

1732–1818 · United Kingdom

British statesman and general governor of India.

IQ 165

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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

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William Wordsworth

1770–1850 · United Kingdom

Lyrical Ballads

IQ 165

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Adolphe Thiers

1797–1877 · France

IQ 160

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Alphonse de Lamartine

1790–1869 · France

Graziella (1852)

IQ 160

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André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin

1783–1865 · France

Serving in as President of the Chamber of Deputies for 7 years.

IQ 160

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Antonio Canova

1757–1822 · Italy

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss • The Three Graces • Napoleon as Mars • the Peacemaker • Venus Victri

IQ 160

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Augustin-Louis Cauchy

1789–1857 · France

Binet–Cauchy identity • Bolzano–Cauchy theorem • Cauchy's argument principle • Cauchy–Binet formula

IQ 160

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Charles-Guillaume Étienne

1778–1845 · France

Coining the phrase "If you want something done right, do it yourself"

IQ 160

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Christoph Martin Wieland

1733–1813 · Germany

Oberon and Bildungsroman

IQ 160

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Claude Adrien Helvétius

1715–1771 · France

On Mind

IQ 160

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François-René de Chateaubriand

1768–1848 · France

Atala • Génie du christianisme • René • Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

IQ 160

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Friedrich Schleiermacher

1768–1834 · Germany

His attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianit

IQ 160

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George Grote

1794–1871 · United Kingdom

History of Greece

IQ 160

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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

1729–1781 · Germany

Miss Sara Sampson; Emilia Galotti; Minna von Barnhelm; Nathan the Wise; Laocoön; Hamburg Dramaturgy

IQ 160

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Jacob Grimm

1785–1863 · Germany

Being the editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

IQ 160

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John Hunter (surgeon)

1728–1793 · Scotland

Scientific method in medicineMany discoveries in surgery and medicine

IQ 160

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John Wesley

1703–1791 · England

Creating the Methodism movement.

IQ 160

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Joseph Marie Jacquard

1752–1834 · France

Programmable loom

IQ 160

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Mary Wollstonecraft

1759–1797

IQ 160

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William Ellery Channing

1780–1842 · United States

American Unitarian preacher.

IQ 160

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William Godwin

1756–1836 · United Kingdom

Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams

IQ 160

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William Cowper

1731–1800 · United Kingdom

Light Shining out of Darkness

IQ 160

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Alexander Hamilton

1755–1804 · United States

Being one of the founding fathers of the USA.

IQ 155

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Charles James Fox

1749–1806 · United Kingdom

Being in the British Parliament for 38 years

IQ 155

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Daniel O'Connell

1775–1847 · Ireland

Catholic emancipation of 1829

IQ 155

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Georges Danton

1759–1794 · France

Being a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution

IQ 155

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Giacomo Casanova

1725–1798 · Italy

Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life)

IQ 155

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Jacques Necker

1732–1804 · France

Playing a key role in French history before and during the first period of the French Revolution

IQ 155

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Ludwig Tieck

1773–1853 · Germany

IQ 155

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Pierre-Jean de Béranger

1780–1857 · France

"The old flag", 1820

IQ 155

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Robert Fulton

1765–1815 · United States

Steamboat, Nautilus (1800 submarine)

IQ 155

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Simón Bolívar

1783–1830 · VE

IQ 155

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Thomas Carlyle

1795–1881 · Scotland

Sartor Resartus • The French Revolution: A History • On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in Hist

IQ 155

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Thomas Moore

1779–1852 · Ireland

"The Minstrel Boy" • "The Last Rose of Summer" • Memoirs of Captain Rock

IQ 155

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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

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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

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William Wilberforce

1759–1833 · United Kingdom

IQ 155

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Thomas Jefferson

1743–1826

3rd President of the United States, The principal author of the Declaration of Independence

IQ 154

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Auguste de Marmont

1774–1852 · France

IQ 150

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Charles Lyell

1797–1875 · United Kingdom

Uniformitarianism

IQ 150

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Georges-Louis Le Sage

1724–1803 · Switzerland

Hs theory of gravitation

IQ 150

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Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

1758–1805 · United Kingdom

Naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars

IQ 150

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John Franklin

1786–1847 · United Kingdom

English naval officer.

IQ 150

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John Wilkes

1725–1797 · England

English politician, publicist, and political agitator.

IQ 150

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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

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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

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William Cobbett

1763–1835 · United Kingdom

Rural Rides

IQ 150

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Andrew Jackson

1767–1845 · United States

Being the 7th president of the United States.

IQ 145

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Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

1769–1852 · United Kingdom

Commanding forces during the battle of Waterloo.

IQ 145

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Christoph Willibald Gluck

1714–1787 · Germany

"Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Tauris) (1779)

IQ 145

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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

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Gioachino Rossini

1792–1868 · Italy

IQ 145

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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

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Joshua Reynolds

1723–1792 · England

English portrait painter.

IQ 145

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Muhammad Ali of Egypt

1769–1849 · MK

Ottoman Albanian commander; became founder of modern Egypt.

IQ 145

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George Washington

1732–1799 · United States

Being the first president of the United States

IQ 140

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Charles XIV John

1763–1844 · Sweden

Being the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty.

IQ 140

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Robert Clive

1725–1774 · United Kingdom

English general and statesman.

IQ 140

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Alexander Pushkin

1799–1837 · Russia

Eugene Onegin, The Captain's Daughter, Boris Godunov, Ruslan and Ludmila.

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Ali Pasha of Ioannina

1740–1822 · AL

Being a ruthless ruler of the Ottoman Empire.

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Amedeo Avogadro

1776–1856 · Italy

Avogadro's lawAvogadro constant

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Augustin Pyramus de Candolle

1778–1841 · Switzerland

System of Taxonomy and Principle of "Nature's War"

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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

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Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen

1791–1860 · Germany

Christianity and Mankind

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Daniel Bernoulli

1700–1782 · Switzerland

Bernoulli's principle • Early kinetic theory of gases

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Edmund Burke

1729–1797 · Ireland

A Vindication of Natural Society • A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Subli

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Vilna Gaon

1720–1797 · BY

Committing the Tanakh to memory by the age of four

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Franz Mesmer

1734–1815 · Germany

Animal magnetism

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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

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Friedrich Schiller

1759–1805 · Germany

The Robbers • Don Carlos • Wallenstein Trilogy • Mary Stuart • Ode to Joy • William Tell

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Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

1724–1803 · Germany

Opening German literature up to exploration outside of French models

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Henry Cavendish

1731–1810 · United Kingdom

Discovery of hydrogen and Measuring the Earth's density

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James Hutton

1726–1797 · Scotland

Plutonic geologyDeep timeLive Earth

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James Cook

1728–1779 · United Kingdom

Achieving the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia

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Jane Marcet

1769–1858 · United Kingdom

Author of Conversations on Chemistry, a unique textbook for its time written for people with little

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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

1744–1829 · France

Evolution; inheritance of acquired characteristics; Philosophie Zoologique

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John Dalton

1766–1844 · United Kingdom

Atomic theory, Law of Multiple Proportions, Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures, Daltonism

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John Herschel

1792–1871 · United Kingdom

The invention of photography

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John Michell

1724–1793 · United Kingdom

Predicting the existence of black holes, seismology, manufacture of magnets, mass of the Earth

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Joseph Henry

1797–1878 · United States

Electromagnetic induction, Inventor of a precursor to the electric doorbell and electric relay

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Martin Heinrich Klaproth

1743–1817 · Germany

Discovery of uranium, zirconium, and other elements

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Mary Anning

1799–1847 · United Kingdom

Ancient animals, fossils, and paleontology: discovered the first complete specimen of a plesiosaur;

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Niccolò Paganini

1782–1840 · Italy

Composed first opera at age eleven

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Nicolas Chamfort

1741–1794 · France

Epigrams and aphorisms

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Philippe Pinel

1745–1826 · France

Founding scientific psychiatry

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Sophie Germain

1776–1831 · France

Elasticity theory and number theory (e.g. Sophie Germain prime numbers)

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Victor Cousin

1792–1867 · France

Eclecticism

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William Cullen Bryant

1794–1878 · United States

"Thanatopsis"

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Émilie du Châtelet

1706–1749 · France

Translation of Newton's Principia into French, natural philosophy which combines Newtonian physics w

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André Masséna

1758–1817 · France

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François Arago

1786–1853 · France

Rotary polarization • Polarizer • Eddy currents • Fresnel–Arago laws • Arago spot • Arago's rotation

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Michel Ney

1769–1815 · France

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Oliver Goldsmith

1728–1774 · Ireland

The Vicar of Wakefield, "The Deserted Village", The Good-Natur'd Man, She Stoops to Conquer

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Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr

1764–1830 · France

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Joachim Murat

1767–1815 · France

French Revolutionary Wars

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Jane Austen

1775–1817 · England

Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816).

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18th Century Geniuses

18th Century Geniuses

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