Quotations Trivia Quiz

Answer: John F. Kennedy

JFK said this line when he himself was quoting 19th century Reverend Phillips Brooks. JFK said the line during his Remarks at the 11th Annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast on February 7, 1963. The remark 's intent was to spark individual strength and a shared commitment to public service when facing growing global crises.

Answer: Barack Obama

Obama said this line during a speech he gave to a crowd of his supporters on February 5th of 2008. The speech came on the night of the Super Tuesday primary elections. Obama argued that waiting for a flawless leader or a better moment guarantees progress will never happen, insisting that ordinary citizens must drive change themselves rather than expecting political saviors to fix their problems.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Contrary to belief, this is the exact line Napoleon said. At the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Allied forces attacked the Pratzen Heights because they thought it was a weak French flank. Napoleon's advisors had urged him to attack back immediately, when Napoleon said the aforementioned quote.

The quote itself would later become an idiom of "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake," and this quote has been errantly attributed to Napoleon, when it is not exactly what he said. Sir Archibald Alison, who was Scottish and not French, essentially coined the idiom himself when writing "History of Europe".

Answer: Albert Einstein

Einstein said this in a 1929 interview with George Sylvester Viereck, an American poet and journalist. Einstein felt that while knowledge maps out what is already known, imagination provides the leap needed to uncover completely new insights. It would later go on to appear in "The Saturday Evening Post" and then Einstein's book collection "Cosmic Religion" in 1931.

Answer: Donald Trump

On a brisk November evening in 2012, Donald Trump took to then-Twitter to share his thoughts on global warming. This was in 2012 so, of course, it came before Trump would later assume the presidency on two separate terms. The goal was likely to present environmental regulations as a financial danger to US companies instead of a vital step to protect the planet.

Answer: Tom Brady

Brady said this quote during an interview with "Details" magazine in September of 2009. He was talking about his own surprise family news; in 2007, right after he started dating Gisele Bündchen, his ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan revealed she was pregnant with his baby. This comment from Brady depicted how he planned to handle co-parenting with an ex.

Answer: Leon Trotsky

Trotsky wrote about this in his 1938 essay titled "Their Morals and Ours". The modern idiom "the ends justifies the means" relates to Trotsky's original musing. It essentially means that a revolutionary goal justifies tactical means, but that the goal the revolution sought after must also be justified.

This statement was Trotsky's main justification for the brutal tactics the Bolsheviks used during the revolution and the Russian Civil War. He wrote it after being formally exiled from the Soviet Union.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Churchill said this line while speaking at one of his Alma maters, Harrow School, in October of 1941. It essentially suggests that people should be boundless and unyielding, until it becomes logically apparent or ethically apparent that they should cease their efforts.

When he gave the speech, Nazi Germany had already devastated Europe. Just a year earlier, during the Blitz, Britain stood entirely on its own against a looming German invasion.

Answer: Lars Ulrich

While Black Sabbath itself was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ulrich said this line. This took place in March of 2006. Ulrich, the longtime legendary Metallica drummer and founder, essentially said this as a means of suggesting Black Sabbath 'invented' modern rock that would go on to inspire him and countless others.

Answer: Oscar Wilde

This was said in 1891, when Wilde published his essay collection titled "The Soul of Man under Socialism." Oscar Wilde essentially used this line to contrast true individuality with simply being in survival mode all the time. He argued that a profit-driven system forces people to prioritize wealth over their own identity. Because everyone is consumed by financial survival, they never have the opportunity to explore what they truly love.