Misery and Misfortune Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, often referred to by the mononym 'Dante', was a celebrated Italian poet and statesman who lived in the 13th and 14th centuries. One of his best-known works was the "Divine Comedy", which is considered a masterpiece of epic poetry.

Carlos Barbarito is a modern day Argentine poet. Giacomo Leopardi was a 19th century Italian poet and philosopher. Salvatore Quasimodo was a 20th century Italian poet, author, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959.

Answer: not

François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name of Voltaire, was an 18th century French writer and philosopher. The satirical novella "Candide" is one his best-known works. His pen name was an anagram of the Latinized version of his family name, along with the addition of the initial letters of "le jeune" (French for "the young" or "the younger" - but Voltaire used i for j here).

Answer: Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau, was a resolute abolitionist during the 19th century. He and Ralph Waldo Emerson, another great American poet and essayist, shared long-term mentor-protege relationship. The essay "Civil Disobedience" and the book "Walden" are among his numerous literary works.

Joseph Priestley was an 18th century English natural philosopher and theologian. John Dewey was an American philosopher and educational reformer during the 19th and 20th centuries. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th century American essayist, poet, and Henry David Thoreau's mentor and friend.

Answer: beauty

Annelies "Anne" Marie Frank was a teenage diarist, and a victim of the Holocaust. She died of typhus just a few weeks prior to the camp's liberation by British troops. Anne was fifteen years old at the time of her death. Her diary was posthumously published as "The Diary of a Young Girl"--now generally known as "The Diary of Anne Frank". I read the book as a child, and Anne's story still resonates with me to this day.

Answer: Washington Irving

Washington Irving was an American writer that lived in the 19th century. "Rip Van Winkle" is another one of his well-known works. Irving is considered by academicians to be the first American 'Man of Letters' and the progenitor of the American short story format.

James Fenimore Cooper was a 19th century American writer. One of his best-known works was "The Last of the Mohicans". Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American writer; "The Scarlet Letter", "The House of the Seven Gables", and "Twice-Told Tales" are among his literary creations. Herman Melville was a 19th century American short story writer, poet, and novelist; the novel "Moby-Dick" is one of his best-known works.

Answer: money

Terence Alan Patrick Sean "Spike" Milligan was an Irish citizen, and a multi-talented comedian, writer, musician, and actor. He was particularly well-known for being involved with "The Goon Show" as head writer and cast member. He played "Gryphon" in the 1972 film "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (one of my childhood favorites).

A portion of his headstone's epitaph is in Irish Gaelic and translates to "I told you I was ill."

Answer: Aristotle

Aristotle was one of ancient Greece's preeminent thinkers. He was Plato's student and Alexander the Great's teacher. Aristotle's name means 'the best purpose'. His teachings and views contributed to the groundwork for Western philosophy and still influence the modern world.

Heraclitus was an esteemed pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Theophrastus was a Greek philosopher and Aristotle's successor to the Peripatetic school. Epicurus was a Greek philosopher, as well as the founder of Epicureanism.

Answer: once

Laurence J. Peter was a 20th century educator and best known for the exposition of "The Peter Principle." He and Raymond Hull published the book in 1969. Basically, the Peter Principle declares that "employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence." He also coined the bon mot "noblest of all dogs is the hotdog; it feeds the hand that bites it."

Answer: Aesop

Aesop's existence as an actual human being has been questioned by academicians over the past several years. Details of Aesop's life appear in the form of strewn anecdotes in text of several ancient sources, such as Herodotus, Aristotle, Aristophanes and Plato. He is said to have lived sometime during the 620-564 BC period.

Adrianus was an ancient Athenian sophist (specialized teacher). Alciphron was a noted ancient Greek sophist and epistolographer (writer of letters). Aspasius was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Peripatetic school.

Answer: exaggerate

Honoré de Balzac was an influential 19th century French playwright and novelist. Balzac was also considered as one of the key architects of realism in western literature. His magnum opus is regarded to be "La Comédie humaine", which translates to "The Human Comedy" in English.