Whoever "They" Are Trivia Quiz

Answer: Men and nations

Abba Eban (1915-2002) served in a number of governmental and diplomatic posts, most famously as Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and Vice-President of the General Assembly. Raised and educated in the United Kingdom, he displayed a magnificent command of the English language - and several others.

Henry Kissinger once said of Mr. Eban's speaking style, "Sentences poured forth in melifluous constructions complicated enough to test the listener's intelligence and simultaneously leave him transfixed by the speaker's virtuousity."

Answer: Congress (politicians)

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a royalist in his youth, and was elevated to the French peerage. Later in life, he became an ardent republican and social critic. His opposition to Napoleon III led to a period of exile from 1855 to 1870 - and a strong skepticism of (even) elected politicians.

Answer: Lawyers

De Tocqueville (1806-1859) was far kinder to American lawyers than most Americans of his day - or ours. "Democracy in America" (1836) was written during the turmoil and challenge of a rising market economy, growing Populism, and the deepening crisis over slavery.

Although he was a classic 19th century liberal, De Tocqueville did not blindly condemn the upper classes, as this quotation confirms.

Answer: The U.S. Supreme Court

Franklin Roosevelt used this phrase to justify his 1937 proposal to appoint new Justices to the Court, but he stole it from Pearson and Allen. These political pundits wrote a newspaper column called "Washington Merry-Go-Round." In 1932, they published a book titled "More Merry-Go-Round" including a chapter on the Court: "Nine Old Men." This was followed by an entire book with the same title, in 1936.

The phrase derided the Court's conservative members - but by 1936 the leading progressive Justices Benjamin Cardozo and William Brandeis were both over 70 years old. Seven Old Men and Two Spry Guys?

Answer: Our English dead

There is no evidence that Henry V uttered this heroic phrase, or indeed anything else in William Shakespeare's play. The scene - oh, for a Muse of Fire! - is the siege of Harfleur in 1415. History records that the walls were damaged by artillery, but the town surrendered without an assault on the breach.

The English army sustained more casualties from dysentery than enemy action - equally tragic, but not as heroic.

Answer: The Pope and all his cardinals

" ... I have within me the great Pope, Self." Martin Luther (1483-1546) often displayed a strange mixture of self-confidence and humility, well illustrated by this quotation. He once referred to himself as "a miserable bag of worms."

Answer: Germans

"There's nothin' Nietzsche (1844-1900) couldn't teach ya ..." and Nietzsche certainly believed it. He had no patience with anyone less intelligent than himself, which by his reckoning was virtually everyone. Of course, Nietzsche himself was German. His condemnatory comment was directed at his many domestic detractors, who (sometimes) included Teutonic cultural icon Richard Wagner.

Answer: Capitalists

Lincoln's populist streak was expressed in a speech in the Illinois legislature in 1837, opposing an appropriation to investigate the Illinois State Bank. He used the word "capitalists" years before Marx and Engels popularized it. Lincoln earned a fine reputation as a lawyer (and a good living) representing major businesses in Illinois and the Midwest - a few years after 1837.

Answer: The United States of America

Prince Bismarck (1815-1898) displayed more envy than anger in this remark. The architect of German unification, he was amazed at the survival - and continuing rise - of the United States in the wake of the Civil War. His foreign policy was more subtle than his "Blood and Iron" speech and this quotation would suggest.

After the unification of Germany, Bismarck generally endeavored to maintain peace in Europe, and had no quarrel with the United States.

Answer: Christian clergy

"I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country." Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is best-remembered as the author of "Gulliver's Travels," but wrote voluminously on topics both sacred and secular.

His skepticism about the clergy in society was born of personal experience. Trained in divinity and ordained an Anglican priest, his irreverent political pamphlets earned the enmity of Queen Anne. His friends secured for him the Deanery of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin - a position not subject to royal control. From semi-exile but with a secure income, Swift continued both his satiric work and his religious calling.