Week 30: Lisel Mueller

“What a language it is,
the laughter of women.”

—Lisel Mueller

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet born in Germany,
immigrated to America when 15 years old.

Week 29: Whoopi Goldberg

“I don’t have pet peeves,
I have whole kennels of irritation.”

—Whoopi Goldberg


Actress, comedienne, media personality
Pictured here at Comic Relief 2006

Week 28: Marie Curie

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”

—Marie Curie

A physicist and pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes and the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Below picture: First Solvay Conference (1911), Skłodowska-Curie (seated, 2nd from right) confers with Henri Poincaré. Standing, 4th from right, is Rutherford; 2nd from right, Einstein; far right, Paul Langevin.

Week 27: Julia Cameron

“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.”


—Julia Cameron

Award-winning poet, playwright and filmmaker, and author of 30 books including the hugely successful work on creativity, The Artist’s Way.

Week 26: Martha Washington

“I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”


—Martha Washington

The first “First Lady of the
United States” accompanied
her husband on the battlefield
and was instrumental
in maintaining troop morale
during the infamous winter
at Valley Forge.