160 free Who Said It? Famous Quotes trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Who Said It? Famous Quotes trivia questions with answers. Forty 'who said it?' questions, each giving a famous line and asking who really said it. The set spans great speeches, from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Churchill's wartime defiance to Kennedy's inaugural, King's dream and Reagan at the Berlin Wall. It mixes in history's memorable one-liners, like Caesar's 'I came, I saw, I conquered', Descartes' 'I think, therefore I am' and Archimedes' 'Eureka'. There is a run of famous movie and pop-culture quotes too, from Gone with the Wind and Casablanca to the Terminator and Star Wars, and a handful of clever traps: lines everyone credits to the wrong person, including 'Let them eat cake', the Voltaire quote he never wrote, and the Sherlock Holmes phrase that appears in none of the stories. It works for a pub quiz, a classroom or a party. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia, and the sentence that establishes it is shown under each explanation, including the notes on which quotes are misattributed.
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Q 01Who said 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'?
Neil Armstrong
He spoke the words as he became the first person to set foot on the Moon in July 1969.
Q 02Which US president declared 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself'?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
He said it in his first inaugural address in 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression.
Q 03Who urged Americans to 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'?
John F. Kennedy
It came in his 1961 inaugural address.
Q 04Which US president said 'Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far'?
Theodore Roosevelt
He first used the West African proverb publicly in 1901 to describe his foreign policy.
Q 05Who pledged 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat'?
Winston Churchill
It was his first speech as prime minister, delivered to the House of Commons in May 1940.
Q 06Who declared 'We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds...'?
Winston Churchill
He gave the speech to the Commons in June 1940 after the evacuation from Dunkirk.
Q 07Which speech opens 'Four score and seven years ago'?
The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln delivered it in 1863 at the dedication of a cemetery on the Gettysburg battlefield.
Q 08Who delivered the 'I Have a Dream' speech in 1963?
Martin Luther King Jr.
He spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.
Q 09Which American patriot is famous for the cry 'Give me liberty, or give me death!'?
Patrick Henry
He is said to have spoken it at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775.
Q 10Whose reputed last words were 'I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country'?
Nathan Hale
He was a Continental Army spy hanged by the British in 1776.
Q 11Who reported to mission control, 'Okay, Houston, we\'ve had a problem here'?
Jack Swigert
He said it during the Apollo 13 crisis, and commander Jim Lovell repeated it moments later.
Q 12Which US president demanded 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'?
Ronald Reagan
He spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin in 1987.
Q 13Who spoke the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner' in West Berlin in 1963?
John F. Kennedy
The line means 'I am a Berliner', a show of solidarity during the Cold War.
Q 21Yogi Berra is famous for the paradox that a game or race is not finished until what?
It really is over
He said it about a pennant race his team went on to win.
Q 22Which Soviet cosmonaut cried 'Poyekhali!' - 'Let\'s go!' - as he launched into space in 1961?
Yuri Gagarin
He became the first human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 1.
Q 23A jury named which line the most memorable American movie quotation of all time?
Frankly, my dear, I do not give a damn
Clark Gable spoke it as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, and the AFI ranked it number one.
Q 14Which US president said 'We choose to go to the Moon' in a 1962 speech at Rice University?
John F. Kennedy
The speech helped launch the Apollo programme.
Q 15The Latin boast 'Veni, vidi, vici' - 'I came, I saw, I conquered' - is attributed to whom?
Julius Caesar
He reportedly wrote it to the Roman Senate after a swift victory at the Battle of Zela around 47 BC.
Q 16Which French philosopher wrote 'I think, therefore I am' (cogito, ergo sum)?
Rene Descartes
He made it the first principle of his philosophy.
Q 17Who confessed 'If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants'?
Isaac Newton
He wrote it in a 1675 letter to his rival Robert Hooke.
Q 18The saying 'I know that I know nothing' is associated with which ancient Greek philosopher?
Socrates
It captures his habit of disavowing knowledge while questioning others.
Q 19The famous exclamation 'Eureka!' - 'I have found it!' - is credited to which ancient thinker?
Archimedes
Legend says he shouted it after discovering the principle of buoyancy in his bath.
Q 20Who became famous for the abolitionist speech remembered as 'Ain\'t I a Woman?'
Sojourner Truth
She delivered it on a lecture tour of New York State in 1851.
Q 24The catchphrase 'I\'ll be back', from the 1984 film The Terminator, is associated with which actor?
Arnold Schwarzenegger
He reused variations of it in later films.
Q 25The Jedi valediction 'May the Force be with you' comes from which film franchise?
Star Wars
It has passed into everyday pop-culture use.
Q 26Which US president kept a sign reading 'The buck stops here' on his Oval Office desk?
Harry Truman
It meant that the responsibility for decisions ended with him.
Q 27'Let them eat cake' is traditionally but wrongly attributed to whom?
Marie Antoinette
There is no evidence she ever said it; it is now seen as a journalistic cliché.
Q 28Who actually wrote 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'?
Evelyn Beatrice Hall
She wrote it under a pen name to summarise Voltaire's attitude, not as his own words.
Q 29Sherlock Holmes never actually says which phrase in any of Arthur Conan Doyle's sixty stories?
'Elementary, my dear Watson'
Holmes calls things 'elementary' and calls Watson 'my dear Watson', but never joins the two.
Q 30Which US admiral is credited with 'Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!' at Mobile Bay?
David Farragut
He led Union warships past Confederate mines, then called torpedoes, in 1864.