Literary misquotations quiz: can you get the wrong lines right?

1. 

   The Bank of England is coming in for some stick over the quotation it has chosen for its new Jane Austen note: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" Which character in Pride and Prejudice says it?

   1. Mr Darcy

   2. Elizabeth Bennet

   3. Mrs Bennet

   4. Caroline Bingley

2. In 2013, Ireland’s Central Bank misquoted James Joyce on a commemorative coin intended to honour the author. Which is the correct quotation from Ulysses?

   1. Ineluctable modality of the invisible: at least if no more, that is thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read

   2. Irresistible modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read

   3. Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read

   4. Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things that I am here to read

3. 

   Thanks to F Scott Fitzgerald scholar Anne Margaret Daniels for pointing out that Donald Trump misquoted Fitzgerald yesterday. The US president tweeted after the collapse of attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare that The Great Gatsby author wrote: “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” Which is the correct quotation?

   1. “You mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat.”

   2. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.”

   3. “You mustn’t confuse failure with success.”

   4. “Wake up and smell the covfefe.”

4. The quotation “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” is widely attributed to Mark Twain, but to whom did Twain himself actually credit it?

   1. Walt Whitman

   2. Benjamin Disraeli

   3. Nathaniel Hawthorne

   4. Alexander Hamilton

5. 

   And who has the site Quote Investigator pinpointed as the likely origin of “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”, which is usually attributed to Twain?

   1. Jonathan Swift

   2. Voltaire

   3. Samuel Johnson

   4. Mary Shelley

6. Twain is much misquoted. Which of the following lines did he actually say?

   1. “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

   2. “The only two certainties in life are death and taxes.”

   3. "I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."

   4. “Ours is the 'land of the free'- nobody denies that - nobody challenges it. (maybe it is because we won't let other people testify.)"

7. 

   Which book retailer used George Orwell to support its argument that publishers were against cheap books by using the partial quotation: if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them” - rather than the full quote, which shows Orwell's support for the idea? "The Penguin books are splendid value for sixpence, so splendid that if other publishers had any sense they would combine against them and suppress them."

   1. Waterstones

   2. Tesco

   3. Amazon

   4. Walmart

8. Which poet wrote “A little learning is a dangerous thing”, a line which is often misquoted as “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”?

   1. Alexander Pope

   2. William Wordsworth

   3. Emily Dickinson

   4. Percy Shelley

9. 

   Who first wrote the line “Elementary, my dear Watson”?

   1. Arthur Conan Doyle

   2. Benedict Cumberbatch

   3. PG Wodehouse

   4. Anthony Horowitz

10. Who wrote the line “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”?

    1. Voltaire

    2. Voltaire’s biographer Evelyn Beatrice Hall

    3. JK Rowling

    4. Plato

Solutions

1:D - And she really doesn't mean it; after proclaiming it to a room in order to impress Mr Darcy, Caroline Bingley quickly drops her book after becoming bored of it. So bad choice, Bank of England., 2:C - Ireland's Central Bank later said that the coin was "an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation"., 3:A, 4:B - However, the phrase is not found in any of the British prime minister's works and the earliest known appearances of the phrase in public life came years after his death in 1881., 5:A, 6:D - The first quote is a twist on what Twain wrote in 1897 after newspapers confused an ill cousin for the author: "The report of my death was an exaggeration". The second is misattributed to Twain, but a similar line was written by Christopher Bullock in 1716: "’Tis impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes." The third is a variation of what lawyer Clarence Darrow, of Scopes Trial fame, wrote in 1932: "I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.", 7:C, 8:A, 9:C - The first recorded use of the phrase was in the 1915 novel, Psmith, Journalist written by PG Wodehouse., 10:B

Scores

1. 9 and above.

   There's no fooling you! As Shakespeare once said: "You done good, kid!" Didn't he?

2. 8 and above.

   There's no fooling you! As Shakespeare once said: "You done good, kid!" Didn't he?

3. 7 and above.

   Not bad. Try again? Although, as Einstein never said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

4. 6 and above.

   Not bad. Try again? Although, as Einstein never said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

5. 5 and above.

   Not bad. Try again? Although, as Einstein never said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

6. 4 and above.

   As Abraham Lincoln once said: "Jeez, go Google it or something."

7. 2 and above.

   As Abraham Lincoln once said: "Jeez, go Google it or something."

8. 3 and above.

   As Abraham Lincoln once said: "Jeez, go Google it or something."

9. 0 and above.

   As Abraham Lincoln once said: "Jeez, go Google it or something."

10. 10 and above.

    There's no fooling you! As Shakespeare once said: "You done good, kid!" Didn't he?