Have you ever wondered who is the smartest person in the world? Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene decided to find it out. For the whole twenty years, they have been interviewing people in order to make a rating of the ten most intelligent people in history.

Researchers managed to interview more than one hundred thousand people from different corners of our planet. Moreover, the research has covered several categories. It has been evaluated:

  • how innovative the achievements of a genius were
  • whether his activity was multilateral
  • how powerful he was in his field
  • how universal his discoveries and inventions were
  • how much he has influenced the subsequent history of mankind

Of course, the nationality of respondents has strongly influenced their preferences, that’s why the result has turned out to be mixed. It’s presented in a list of equal rating winners: each one from the list is the most brilliant mind in history.

So, here are the most intelligent men of humanity:

  1. William Shakespeare (creator of English repertory theater, multi-faceted and profound writer of the Renaissance);
  2.  Michelangelo (Italian sculptor, poet, philosopher, painter, architect – one of the titans of the Renaissance);
  3. Architects who built the Egyptian pyramids;
  4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet, novelist, playwright, philosopher, scientist, and statesman);
  5. Alexander the Great (the greatest warrior, king, conqueror, creator of a world empire);
  6. Isaac Newton (British mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and physicist who discovered the law of gravity);
  7. Thomas Jefferson (3d president of the United States of America, one of the founding fathers of this power);
  8. Leonardo da Vinci (Great Italian artist: painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, mathematician, physicist, naturalist), still one of the greatest Renaissance figures);
  9. Phidias (Athens architect);
  10. Albert Einstein (scientist, founder of modern theoretical physics and social activist).

This list proves that genius can manifest in almost any sphere of life: literature, visual arts, architecture, science, politics.

If you are talented hardworking and have found your beloved vocation, you can hope that someday you will find yourself in the list of the most intelligent and successful people of all ages and nations.


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This Post Has 13 Comments

  1. Richard McGinnis

    “10. Albert Einstein (scientist, founder of modern theoretical physics and social activist).”

    My favorite…

  2. Not Impressed

    The title of the piece reads “Top 10 Most Intelligent People of the World.” Yet, when one scrolls down to the list the title has changed to “the most intelligent MEN of humanity” (emphasis mine). Kind of odd, don’t you think, that you use a gender neutral term like “people,” but then limit your list to only “men.” I guess it’s a good thing women are neither real “people,” nor have they any place in “humanity.”

    1. Paul Briody

      Men of high intelligence outnumber women, though the average woman is more intelligent than the average man.

  3. jaime

    What? my name is not in this list? You need more info.

  4. Laren

    The ten most intelligent white men of western culture.
    Minus Nikola tesla!
    But not the ten most intelligent men of the world.

  5. Sanjib Mall

    Probably “people” of modern western world from a limited view. What about discoverer of fire, wheel, gun powder, agriculture, various religious leaders / prophets, composers and so on?

  6. Mowliid Ahmed

    The messenger of Allah Mohammed PBUH is the most intelligent person ever

    1. Nelly

      Only people against Islam will disagree with you. People who haven’t even read the Quran will argue that you are wrong yet they are here reading about intelligent people but wouldn’t read for themselves.

  7. shabnam khan

    May be the most imp people u like but by far they arent the most intelligent people MOHAMMAD pbuh told the world how a bay is made while science cudnt figure out until recently and all his intelligence was GOD given since he never went to no schools or university forget about hatred towards Islam dont manipulate those scientific facts proven time and again i will look forward to ur response i need a fair explanation for this wrong evaluation reply me at: [email protected] thnx

  8. Nelly

    I didn’t believe it until I read it too! America has created anti Islam just as Hitler created anti Judaism. They just mask it. I guess the American government should be number one on this list for pulling the wool over people’s eyes.

  9. poorna chandra thejaswi

    I wish to be like one them.

  10. JayVaxx

    Muhammad SAW was the intelligent man ever lived… There is no One like Him and there will be no one like Him…
    believe it or not.

  11. Bob Caputi

    No Aristotle !!!

    That is a stretch for sure; his concept of the Geo-Centric
    Universe existed until Copernicus and Galileo in the 16th
    and 17th centuries!

    No Confucius!!!

    Created the moral philosophy that most of Southeast
    Asia subscribes to 2500 years after his death.

    No Marie Curie!!!

    First female to win TWO Nobel prizes, was so
    dedicated to her radium research that it killed her.

    My humble opinion, that is all !

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