William Wallace

Jesus. Over a Billion followers. Even the European ones who killed each other because they had the interpretation of the Bible "wrong".

While a great historical figure, I would not call Roger Williams the creator of 'separation of church and state', which is a concept not a law or a right. It is a good concept, but it's rather ironic how warped it's application has become. Wlliams and other Baptists of the 18th and early 19th century advocated separation form church and state for reasons based in religious freedom, but what's often lost as aethiests embrace that element is that the real reason for this were so that the state could not befoul the church *and* as Williams said, “Forced worship stinks in the nostrils of God.”

If you're looking for the one with the most followers, then clearly it's Abraham, father of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Manichaeism, Satanism, Gnosticism as well as various syncretistic religions that take elements from those six without strictly fitting into them (eg. Cao Dai, Santeria [aka 'voodoo', Mormonism, Children of God, and Aum Shinrikyu).

But if we're talking about the ones I (or other commentators) personally admire the most, there's something of a list:

(Temujin) Genghis Khan - took over his father's tribe at age 17, took 26 years to conquer the rest of the Mongol tribes and then knew what to do with them so that in the next 20 years of his life, he conquered one of the largest land empires ever and not - like Alexander - by taking over existing Empires, Temujin started from scratch in some areas;
Nikola Tesla - For the sheer inventive drive that enabled him to patent in the nineteenth century, inventions some of which would still be seen as science fiction in the twenty-first;
Sibelius - a great composer who, once he had persuaded the Finnish government to pay him a pension to allow him to compose as he wished, never wrote another note.

Catherine the Great - born a princess in an impoverished royal house in Germany, she became Tsara, not by accident of birth but by her own actions and those of the people she employed for that purpose.

Aimee du Becq de Rivery - born in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) a girlhood friend of Josephine du Beauharnais (Napoleon Bonaparte's Josephine), she was captured by Corsairs when crossing to Europe and sold into slavery. Although legally she remained a slave throughout the rest of her life, she became de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire, which seems pretty good going to me.

Alan Turing - The grandfather of modern computer science, artificial intelligence, and destroyer of Nazi crypto.

His influence? How many of you are using a computer?

Among others, Leonhard Euler (you asked for admired ones, not influential ones)

Jacques Cousteau - Naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author, and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation, and was a member of the Académie française.

For me it is Hannibal Barca...committed his life to one goal, did extraordinary things than none done before him, never stop trying even when everything was against him. Its rare in this days to see such characteristics among leaders.

Epicurus, he's a cool guy...

And he isn't religious so nobody can get worked up about it!

If only Epicurus were religious. I feel he'd be a better prophet than those that "made it."

Chris Jericho. The Ayatollah of Rock n Rolla

And first ever undisputed champion

I would agree with most of wha Alcuin said except for Telsa. His works have been greatly exaggerated over the years, especially by The Oatmeal.

George Washington. Hands down the most admirable figure in United States history, and truly the father of our nation. His list of accomplishments talents are too numerous too list, but perhaps the greates among them was his humility. He was so loved as a leader that he could have been a king, but selfless love of county allowed him to look beyond his own personal glory to the greater good of the fledging republic and set the foundation for the nation that would save the world from Nazism, Communism, and Islamic terrorism.

Among U.S. leaders I'd prefer Lincoln, interesting guy.

Elvis Presley...nah just joking!

I think Genghis Khan is at a similar level with Philip, Alexander's father. Was the third son, and not the immediate successor. When he took the throne, MAcedonia was a clientele state of many regional powers. With astounding diplomacy he outsmarted all his opponents, untangled himself from their grasp and formed the most powerful city-state of the time,

Lincoln was a tyrant. Brilliant guy, but extremely overrated as a president, and heavily credited with things that he did not accomplish. He's rather a pardox though as a leader. His unconstitional actions are on one hand criminal, and yet through his brilliance and force of will they reuinfied the nation, albeit at the coast of 700,000 lives.

Abraham Lincoln Quote:

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

Source:

Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858
(The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, pp. 145-146.)

Screw Lincoln.

You can't just say "screw Lincoln", he was a product of his time, a time that accepted slavery as the norm. Don't put historical things into modern perspective, see it from his eyes. Also, during the course of the war, from 1858-1865, Lincoln's views changed greatly. During the end of his first term, he was even thinking about giving freed slaves the right to vote, which happened 5 years later. He was a good man, even if the events of the war were not fully under his control, and he did get a bit lucky.

Also, at that point in his political career, he was not for abolishing slavery, merely containing it to the states and territories that it was already in. The abolition part was needed during the civil war to give the Union a real cause for fighting.

Sorry, but I never accepted "product of his time" as a justifiable response. The really good ones can stand above the idiocy of the norm. Maybe he had a grand transition from racist to noble, but I always saw it as the opportunism of a politician.

not trying to be racist but I actually agree with Lincoln there.

If you remove the racist component of Lincolns speech (which was a product of his time given that the was in a party that was founded to give African-Americans equal rights, Lincoln won because unlike his predecessor, he was able to branch out to the more liberal voters of the Democratic party. What he says in his speeches, or in this case a debate, wont necessarily be what he believes. Just look to Romney if you don't believe me) then I 100% agree with Lincoln.

I don't think people are equal:
"All men are not created equal. Some are born smarter, some with greater beauty, some are born strong, while some are born into poverty and others sick and feeble. Both in birth and upbringing, in sheer scope of ability, every human is inherently different... This is why there is struggle, competition and the unfaltering march of progress. Inequality is not evil, equality is."
-Charles zi Britannia (Code Geass, Season 1 episode 6)

Where I agree with both Charles and Lincoln is that while all men are not equal, they should be under the law.

Just because I am smarter, stronger, faster, better looking and richer then you (not saying I am, but just in general), it does not mean I should get special privaleges under the law. This is what Lincoln was saying, unlike me, he applied this to race.

Just because whites are usually smarter then negros doesn't mean we should treat them better is what he is saying.

At the time it was accepted by everyone that caucasians were smarter. I agree with lincoln on the grounds that the law should treat everyone the same.

It's pretty hypocritical of people to give Lincoln a pass on the above mentioned words from 1858, and then refer to southerners as a lot of racists. The fact is that the entire world including blacks themselves thought of themselves as lesser. The fact is that african blacks sold their people into slavery. There's plenty of wrong to go around when we apply today's standard to the 1800s. And this returns me to the point I make on Lincoln where he chief accepted accomplishment by most is 'freeing the slaves', something that he did not actually do. The Emancipation Proclaimation ONLY freed slaves in the states under rebellion. Slaves in Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware were NOT freed untill the 16th ammendment was passed after the civil war, and Lincoln's death. Since the Confederates States of America legally seceeded and formed their own nation, President Lincoln had no authority over them.

The cause that the North/Union fought for had nothing to do with abolishing slavery. It had to do with preserving the union and the abundance of federal tax revenues lost to 13 states leaving it. It's all very noble to suggest that a war was fought to free black slaves, but it's just not true.

You have your history slightly mixed up. The emancipation proclamation outlawed slavery in the confederate states.

the 13th amendmant, passed by Lincoln 2 years later outlawed slavery in all states

Yup, Lincoln was worried about the Constitutional interpretation of the emancipation proclamation. With applying it only to the CSA, he could argue that this action was hurting the enemy war effort thus legal as Commander-in-Chief. This also dodged the tricky question of border states that technically were part of the Union but had slaves.

Mahatma Gandhi - Preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world. The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (i.e. basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination.

Gandhi led Indians in protesting the national salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in demanding the British to immediately Quit India in 1942, during World War II. He was imprisoned for that and for numerous other political offenses over the years. Gandhi sought to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He saw the villages as the core of the true India and promoted self-sufficiency; he did not support the industrialization programs of his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. His chief political enemy in Britain was Winston Churchill, who ridiculed him as a "half-naked fakir." He was a dedicated vegetarian, and undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and political mobilization.

In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan. He was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who thought Gandhi was too sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed as Martyrs' Day in India. The honorific Mahatma ("Great Soul"), was applied to him by 1914.[6] In India he was also called Bapu ("Father"). He is known in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world-wide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one of pragmatism, that is, practicing his principles in real time. Asked to give a message to the people, he would respond, "My life is my message."

@RUFFHAUS, I think it's a matter of degree. No one argues that Lincoln was 100% not racist, but he was doing a lot better than the people committing treason in order to continue enslaving human beings.