Directions Below, you will see famous quotations or statements from literature, history, or film. You will need to look up the statement and be reasonably familiar with its context and application. In some cases, where I felt the statement might be ambiguously identified, I added an author’s name or other information in parentheses. You don’t have to read the entire book or see the entire movie, although of course I recommend it. You should know enough to answer questions in Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or Varsity Quiz and to recognize the basic intent of the allusion.
Example: All animals are equal, but some animals re more equal than others. Answer: Refers to the end of Orwell’s Animal Farm, in which the pigs have become the new dictators. General Meaning or Implication: People are deceived by the promises of leadership.
The horror! The horror!
He loved Big Brother.
Big Brother is watching you.
Call me Ishmael.
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a d**n.
Elementary, my dear Watson.
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
[He] has a lean and hungry look.
I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio.
The dark night of the soul
Round up the usual suspects.
We're not in Kansas anymore.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
All the world’s a stage.
Please, sir, can I have some more? (Dickens)
[He was] mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
The dark Satanic mills
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Fifteen minutes of fame
Like Patience on a monument
"An eye for an eye" leaves the whole world blind.
To be or not to be; that is the question.
The heart of darkness
Life is nasty, brutish, and short.
Too full of the milk of human kindness
He was a man for all seasons.
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
It is better to be feared than loved.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
To err is human; to forgive, divine.
The lady doth protest too much.
I think I can; I think I can.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
There's no place like home. There's no place like home.
Let them eat cake.
I am Spartacus.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Man is the measure of all things.
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Life is short; art is long.
We are not amused.
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
E = MC squared
I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.
In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.
In hoc signo vinces.
Soylent Green is people!
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
“Blankian”
Directions Below, you will see famous adjectives inspired by famous characters from literature, folklore, myth, or film, or famous people from history. You will need to know what the adjective means. Example: His countenance was grim and saturnine. Answer: Refers to the god Saturn in Roman myth. General Meaning or Implication: People who are saturnine are relatively moody and temperamental.
Jovial
Dickensian
Falstaffian
Quixotic
Marxist
Brobdingnagian
Lilliputian
Homeric
Arthurian
Aristotelian
Mercurial
Dadaist
Byronic
Chauvinistic
Joycean
Machiavellian
McCarthyist
Draconian
Platonic
Epicurean
Oedipal
Wagnerian
Malthusian
Faustian
Herculean
Tantalizing
Lovecraftian
Hippocratic
Hitchcockian
Junoesque
Kafkaesque
Kierkegaardian (Yes, there are two As next to each other.)