Outside the Box Trivia Quiz

Answer: Albert Einstein

Arguably the most famous thinker of the last millennium, but probably most widely known for his contributions towards the Manhattan Project. His most famous (and oft misunderstood) work was produced in 1905, and entitled "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" ... which went on to win him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.

Answer: François-Marie Arouet

Who? Better known by his pen name Voltaire, Arouet was a French Enlightenment writer famous for his advocacy of freedom (most notably trade and religion). An outspoken supporter of social reform, and a satirist that took every opportunity to criticize the Catholic church and the French society of his day.

Answer: Frank Zappa

What is a quiz on stupidity without a Zappa quote? Genius is not confined to the pages of history and esoteric treatises on the speed of light in a vacuum. Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993) was possibly one of the most influential rock musicians of the twentieth century. From his early days with "Mothers of Invention" (Freak Out, released in 1966) to the release of Philly '76 (one of 23 posthumous albums!), Zappa dabbled in music of all kinds, and was one of the first to begin tearing down the barriers between rock, jazz and classical music.

A vocal proponent of democracy and free speech, he challenged censorship in any form, testifying before a senate committee attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organization, co-founded by Al Gore's wife, Tipper.

He even considered running for President of the United States at one point and frankly (if you'll excuse the pun), I think that he would have been a far better choice than some other building blocks of the universe ...

Answer: Henry David Thoreau

A lifelong abolitionist, Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience had a profound influence on future leaders, such as Gandhi, Tolstoy and Martin Luther King Jr.

An anarchist of the highest order, he is best known for "Walden", a book reflecting on the importance of solitude and closeness to nature, and "Civil Disobedience", and argument for moral opposition in an unjust government state.

His most famous quote (sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine), was "That government is best which governs least".

Answer: Martin Luther King Jr

Not much to say about him that isn't common knowledge. A civil rights activist and a Baptist minister, he led the fight to secure progress on civil rights in the US. While there is much debate as to just how progressive his views were (for example, his own family disagree on his position regarding gay marriages), it is certain that whatever his personal feelings on the matter would have been overshadowed by his dedication to social justice and human dignity.

King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968.

Answer: Anonymous

I wish that I knew who said this. Certainly a touch of genius, and definitely a mite of cynicism.

Answer: Mark Twain

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, he was fascinated with science, and developed a number of patents himself. A humorist and a wit of note, he was also one of the first authors to introduce the technology of time travel into modern literature.

Another social commentator of note, he was quoted as saying: "I am said to be a revolutionist in my sympathies, by birth, by breeding and by principle. I am always on the side of the revolutionists, because there never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolt"

Answer: Bertrand Russell

A pacifist imprisoned for his beliefs, a pre-war critic of Adolf Hitler, a supporter of nuclear disarmament before it was fashionable to do so, this philosopher and Nobel Prize winner in Literature is undoubtedly one of the greatest thinkers of the last hundred years.

Considered to be one of the founders of analytic philosophy, his contributions to the modern sciences ranged widely from mathematics, metaphysics, the logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, set theory, to linguistics, ethics and epistemology.

Answer: Elbert Hubbard

No, not the widely renowned father of Dianetics, but rather the slightly less popular but immensely respected "A Message to Garcia". A prolific writer, editor and businessman, Hubbard was also a pacifist by nature.

Sadly, he died aboard the RMS Lusitania in 1915, sunk by a German submarine while en route to Europe to encourage peace talks.

Answer: Plato

Certainly one of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known, Plato was also a mathematician and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first formalized university in history.

However, while his contributions to philosophy have undoubtedly been significant, he became almost tyrannical in his attempts to reduce science and experiment to pure thought. Nietzsche regarded Plato as "the fundamental source of nihilism in the West".

Not a man to suffer fools lightly ... and will probably remain one of the more controversial for many centuries to come.