Grothendieck's 18

Alexander Grothendieck, the 'avatar' of 20th century mathematics, in his book, "La Clef des Songes"(1986-1987), discusses 18 men who were, according to him, "Les Mutants", or humans who are far ahead of time. The following is the list of those men along with brief introductions.

1. C. F. S. Hahnemann (1755 – 1843): German doctor and scholar, renewed the medicine of his time.
2. C. Darwin (1809 – 1882): English scientist.
3. W. Whitman (1819 – 1892): American journalist, poet and teacher.
4. B. Riemann (1826 – 1866): German mathematician.
5. Râmakrishna (1836 – 1886): Indian (Hindu) saint.
6. R. M. Bucke (1837 – 1902): American doctor, psychiatrist and scholar.
7. P. A. Kropotkine (1842 – 1921): Russian geographer and scholar; anarchist revolutionary.
8. E. Carpenter (1844 – 1929): Minister, farmer, English thinker and writer.
9. S. Freud (1856 – 1939): Austrian doctor, psychiatrist; creator of Psychoanalysis.
10. R. Steiner (1861 – 1925): German scholar, philosopher, writer, orator, pédagogue ... ; visionary teacher, creator of anthroposophy.
11. M. K. Gandhi (1881 – 1955): Indian advocate and politician; spread the message of 'ahimsa' (non-violence).
    
12. P. Teilhard de Chardin (1881 – 1955): French paleontologist, religious(Christian) thinker, worked for a reconciliation of religion and science.
    
13. A. S. Neill (1883 – 1973): English teacher and educator, who supported an education in liberty.
14. N. Fujii (aka Fujii Guruji) (1885 – 1985): Japanese Buddhist monk.
    
15. J. Krishnamurti (1895 – 1985): Orator, Indian religious thinker and writer.
    
16. M. Legaut (1900 - ...): University teacher, farmer, French Christian religious thinker and writer, pupil of Jesus of Nazareth, worked for a renewal of the spirit of the Christianity.
17. F. Carrasquer (1904 - ...): Spanish public school teacher, educator and militant anarchist.
18. ... Solvic (1923? ... 1945): American worker, who worked apparently without any particular appointment.
    

words of wisdom

• The last thing you want to do in life is invariably the first thing you have to do.
• Life sucks...... like a vacuum cleaner, ......... not like a whore!!
• Hope kills you, but depression doesn't, b'coz dying hope never dies and waits for you to die.
  

Luck

I had always believed that I was lucky. Maybe, I was. But, I don't really remember any instance where luck gave me a boost. You might say, I was lucky not to be crushed by a truck in a street accident. True, things could get far worse, but what I feel is that whatever happened were destined to happen, just the sun rises everyday, and all these were definitely the worst of the things that could possibly happen. I never got what I wanted, whatever I got was the least that I could expect, but still I slowly learnt to be happy with whatever I got, despite my firm belief thats its much less than what I deserve.
This feeling makes me think if there is at all any point in even talking about luck. Is it rational to say, "whatever happened happened, and couldn't have happened any other way."?