Aren’t we all? Scene from Dripping Springs Texas

• Kelly Corrigan, The Middle Place

Kelly Corrigan (born August 16, 1967) is the author of four New York Times bestselling books about family life: The Middle Place, Glitter and Glue, Lift and Tell Me More. She is the host of the long form interview show Tell Me More on PBS,[2] now in its 7th season, as well as the podcast and NPR radio show Kelly Corrigan Wonders,[3] which has over 400 episodes (as of February 2024).

• Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a Jewish Austrian-Czech writer and novelist from Prague who wrote in German and is considered a major 20th-century literary figure. He's best known for his novels The Trial, about a man charged with an unnamed crime, and The Metamorphosis, where the protagonist wakes up as an insect. Kafka's writing style, known as "kafkaesque", evokes feelings in readers by describing the objects characters encounter, rather than their emotion

You can see the capital building from across town at the end of Congress Avenue

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche’s critiques of traditional morality and his vision of the Übermensch provide a blueprint for navigating a world where old certainties have collapsed and new values must be forged. His enduring appeal stems from his bold confrontation with the uncomfortable truths of existence, offering a philosophy that addresses both individual empowerment and the existential crises of modernity.

The Texas Capitol is widely recognized as one of the nation's most distinguished state capitols. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

• Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a Russian-born American author and biochemistry professor at Boston University. He is considered one of science fiction's "Big Three" writers, alongside Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. Asimov is best known for his Foundation series and robot stories, which established the word "robotics" and influenced the public's perception of robots. His work often explored the unintended consequences of technology and how humanity could overcome them.

• Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield was a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach.

• Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are a set of ethical guidelines for robots, designed to ensure they serve humanity without causing harm: a robot may not injure a human being, must obey human orders, and must protect its own existence, as long as these actions don't conflict with the first two laws.

• Maya Angelou

With over 170 poems published during her career, Angelou’s poetry subject matter was diverse because it explored themes of identity, resilience, struggle and social justice in a way that resonated deeply with readers worldwide. Her poetry style was also manifold, ranging from free verse to lyrical and narrative poems that addressed important social issues with thought-provoking depth.

• Robert Hunter and Phil Lesh

"Box of Rain" by the Grateful Dead, written by Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter, is a song about love, loss, and resilience, with the "box of rain" symbolizing the world we live in and the emotional burden of grief, while also offering a message of hope and catharsis.

• Albert Camus

Camus, above all, could not ever justify killing. This is something that is consistent in all of his philosophy. Camus recognized that it was 'ideas' that drove people to kill, and he saw war and revolution as a result of those ideas.

• Sergei Yesenin

Sergei Yesenin, sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations of and nostalgia for the village life of his childhood – no idyll, presented in all its rawness, with an implied curse on urbanisation and industrialisation"