The choice included 1. Karl Marx 2. Albert Einstein 3. Sir Isaac Newton 4. Charles Darwin 5. Sir Thomas Aquinas 6. Stephen Hawking 7. Immanuel Kant 8. Rene Descartes 9. James Clerk Maxwell 10. Friedrich Nietzche.

Not only did Marx poll the highest vote, but he put even Einstein to a distance second. The vote was the ninth of the BBC News Online’s Millennium’s series. Nnext month they vote for the greast explorer.

Taking part from across the globe people felt that ‘Karl Marx washad inspired thousands of liberation struggles. He was the father of modern political thinking"

This is what others have felt—

Marx analysed best the working of capitalism. Given that that is the system that characterises the world at the end of the twentieth century his work is as relevant to understanding the world we live in as it was for understanding the 19th century.
Jyotsna Kapur, USA

Karl Marx's ideas have had an immense meaning for people all over the world, both in thought and action.
Frode Mannsåker

Karl Marx developed a thorough critique of Capitalism. His ideas have had a major impact in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Mike Wunsch

Karl Marx's theories are so versatile that they can be used to understand and explain situations that confront us in today's world.
Becky Branford

Albert Einstein revolutionised science.
Lay Wah, Malaysia

Albert Einstein changed the way we think about our entire universe.
Greg Kimmelman

Sir Isaac Newton's work in the 17th Century was a truly great leap forward in scientific thinking and understanding.
Nathan Dimmock

Sir Isaac Newton's work on light, gravity and motion, his creation of the calculus and improved telescope changed the way we think and our capacity for discovery forever. And much of his best work was completed within a few years in his early twenties.
Kevin Curran

Charles Darwin changed 2,000 years of intellectual thought. Before Darwin the Bible was the word of God. After Darwin it was a metaphor. No other philosopher, teacher, scientist or thinker has had that amount of influence.
Louise Berry, Canada

Charles Darwin thought what at the time was unthinkable - that the Bible was wrong. It not only took brains, but courage to express his opinion - and to receive disbelief and ridicule in his time for one of the most inspiring theories of all time.
Simon Treleaven, UK

Thomas Aquinas demonstrated faith and reason are not opposed and used reason to prove it.
Joe Pettibon