The Faces Of Truth Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diderot

The quotation comes from "Pensées Philosophiques," No. 29, a 1742 work that expresses heretical anti-Christian concepts. Diderot is possibly best known for his work as chief editor of the "Encyclopédie," which was published between 1751 and 1772 in 28 volumes, 17 of text and 11 of plates.

Answer: Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) penned these words in his "Proverbs In Prose" (1819). A novelist, poet, dramatist, and scientist (among other pursuits), Goethe is known for many works, including his "Faust," a drama in two parts (1808, 1832), "The Sorrows Of Young Werther," a novel (1774), and "Theory Of Colors," a scientific treatise (1810).

Answer: Keats

The lines appear in "Ode On A Grecian Urn" (1820) by John Keats (1795-1821). It is important to note that "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" is "spoken" by the urn, not Keats. Keats is revered for his five magnificent odes. His other four are "Ode On Indolence," "Ode On Melancholy," "Ode To A Nightingale," and "Ode To Psyche." Keats had his career cut short when, only 25, he died of tuberculosis in 1821.

Answer: Thoreau

These words come from "Wednesday" in "A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers" (1849) by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), an elegy to his brother John about a trip they took to the White Mountains in 1839. A graduate of Harvard, Thoreau wrote over twenty works.

His best known volumes are "Walden, or Life In The Woods" (1854) and "Resistance To Civil Government" aka "Civil Disobedience" (1849).

Answer: Josh Billings

This comment on truth is from "Josh Billings: His Sayings" (1865). Shaw based his humor on the use of slang, misspellings, and fractured grammar. His books include "Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax" [a spoof of "The Old Farmer's Almanac"] which had annual issues from 1869-1878.

Answer: Mathew Arnold

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) made this comment on truth in line 656 of "Sohrab And Rustum" (1853). Arnold is better known for such poems as "Dover Beach" and "The Scholar Gypsy."

Answer: Mark Twain

Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835-1910) made this suggestion in Chapter Two of "Following The Equator: Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897).
Twain, of course, is best known for "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and "Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn" (1885).

Answer: Zola

These words from Emile Zola (1840-1902) come from an article of his in "Le Figaro" on November 25, 1897. Among his many accomplishments as a writer and political activist, is his 20 volume work of interconnected novels, "Les Rougon-Macquart," which was published bewteen 1871 and 1893.

Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In Chapter 6 of "The Sign of The Four" (1890), Sherlock Holmes makes this statement. "The Sign of The Four" is one of 60 Sherlock Holmes stories penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle introduced Holmes in "A Study In Scarlet" in 1890, which was followed by three other novels and 56 stories.

Answer: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Physician, professor, poet, author, and lecturer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., is possibly best known for his "Breakfast-Table" trilogy. The first volume of the series was "The Autocrat Of The Breakfast-Table" (1858). The next one, from which the quote on truth comes, was "The Professor At The Breakfast-Table (1859).

The series ended with "The Poet At The Breakfast-Table" (1872). (His son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was the distinguished Supreme Court Justice.)