Who said it?
Great (and maybe some not so great) quotes. Try your hand at matching the quote to the “quoter.”
1. Which great three-time American world heavyweight champion boxer, who also won a boxing gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, said, “There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people?” Mike Tyson; Sylvester Stallone; George Foreman; Muhammad Ali.
2. Which President of the United States whispered to his wife, “I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you,” just before his death in 1849? George Washington; Benjamin Franklin; Franklin Roosevelt; James K. Polk.
3. Which poet said, “God will pardon me – that’s his line of work” just before his death in 1856? Samuel Taylor Coleridge; William Shakespeare; Heinrich Heine; William Wordsworth.
4. Of which people did Samuel Johnson assert, as quoted by Boswell in his Life of Johnson, “Sir, they are a race of convicts and ought to be grateful for anything we allow them short of hanging”? Scots; Australians; Americans; Welsh.
5. According to Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan in Glitter and Gold, with which lady (the first to hold a seat in the House of Commons) did the following exchange take place? Lady: “If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee!” Churchill: “And if I were your husband, I would drink it.” Lady Astor; Bernadette Devlin; Connie Markiewicz; Margaret Thatcher.
6. Which U.S. president said, “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It’s a depression when you lose yours?” Harry S. Truman; Richard M. Nixon; John F. Kennedy; George W. Bush.
7. Who said, “I had plenty of pimples as a kid. One day, I fell asleep in the library. When I woke up, a blind man was reading my face?” Charlie Sheen; Mike Myers; Rodney Dangerfield; Dana Carvey.
8. “There’s a sucker born every minute.” P.T. Barnum; Andy Warhol; Cornelius Vanderbilt; Andrew Carnegie.
9. “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Mao Zedong; Pol Pot; Josef Stalin; Adolf Hitler.
10. “Veni, Vidi, Vici!” (I came, I saw, I conquered.)
ANSWERS:
1. Muhammad Ali, who also said his toughest fight was with his first wife. 2. James K. Polk. How beautiful and romantic. Polk was President from 1845 to 1849. His long years in public service had taken a massive toll on his health. He therefore did not seek re-election after his first term and died shortly after. 3. Heinrich Heine, a German poet, most known for his lyric poetry. He lived from 1797 to 1856. Considered one of the most important of the poets from the Romantic era. Many of his works have also been set to music.
4. Americans. Penal transportation from England to the U.S. happened from the 1610’s right up to the American Revolution. Convicts were similarly shipped to Australia from 1788 to 1868. Boswell actually came from Scotland, about which Johnson was also very rude – “The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England!”
5. Lady Astor. This exchange purportedly took place at Blenheim Palace when both were staying with the Marlboroughs. Like many of Churchill’s bon mots, its provenance is difficult to establish, but it should be true!
6. Harry S. Truman touted this quote in April 1958. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States of America. His middle name, which is simply the letter “S,” was chosen as a means to please both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shippe Truman and Solomon Young. The “S” did not stand for anything. Truman served in the Missouri Army National Guard from 1905 to 1911. His eyesight was poor, but he passed the eye tests, necessary to enlist, by secretly memorizing the eye charts. His vision was actually 20/50 in his right eye and 20/40 in his left eye, which was unacceptable, but with his memorization, he did manage to be approved to enlist.
7. Jacob Cohen, a.k.a. Rodney Dangerfield lived, from November 22, 1921 to October 5, 2004. He is best known as an actor and comedian with the catchphrase “I don’t get no respect!” Dangerfield’s comedy album, “No Respect” (1981), earned him a Grammy Award.
8. P.T. Barnum
9. Josef Stalin
10. Julius Caesar. He said this specifically of Britain.