Wisdom and inspiration from 7 famous Philadelphians

The modern city was founded by William Penn in 1682, but the Philadelphia area was originally home to the Lenape people, a Native American tribe. In the 18th century, Philadelphia played a crucial role in the American Revolution. Over time, it has been the birthplace and home of people who have made history in different ways. Here are a few of them.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
(founding father of the United States and founder of the University of Pennsylvania)
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

TINA FEY
(actress, comedian, writer, producer)“You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at.”

WILLIAM PENN
(businessman and founder of the city of Philadelphia)“There is a zeal without knowledge, that is superstition. There is a zeal against knowledge, that is interest or faction; there is a zeal with knowledge, that is religion; and if you will view the countries of cruelty, you will find them superstitious rather than religious. Religion is gentle, it makes men better, more friendly, loving and patient than before.”

MOHINI BHARDWAJ
(Olympic gymnast)
“The reason I do gymnastics is I love to compete. I love the adrenaline, the pressure, the satisfaction of doing well.”

ISAAC ASIMOV
(professor of biochemistry and science fiction writer)
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I’ve found it!), but ‘That’s funny…'”

MARGARET MEAD
(cultural anthropologist)
“Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.”

AMAR BOSE
(electrical engineer and entrepreneur)
“We did experiments with the Boston Symphony for many years where we measured the angles of incidence of sound arriving at the ears of the audience, then took the measurements back to MIT and analyzed them.”

 (Image credits: Tina Fey ice cream lid photo by Mike Mozart; portrait of William Penn by Frederick Lamb; portrait of Isaac Asimov by Rowena Morrill; still of Amar Bose from this video)

By: BrainGain Staff Writer