Ben Franklin

Such a brilliant man, being the polymath that he was. A renaissance man and fabulous in endless sorts of skills and talents, really.

Ideas he had that I considered good and practical ideas:

• Proposal to convert to the metric system
• Proposal for, or at least he had written things in a system of English spelling where the rules and pronunciation were actually consistent
• Proposing the turkey as the national bird.

Okay, so he was mostly brilliant. He also at least said two things that I live by:

"Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

and

"Three can keep a secret if two are dead."

Well done, Mister Franklin.