Memorize 208 Famous Quotes and Proverbs: Meanings and Who Said Them
Study guide for the Famous Quotes deck (AE8055): 199 English proverbs explained plus 9 attributions from Lord Acton to Tolkien, with a theme-based method.
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Proverbs are the trivia category everybody thinks they know until a quiz asks who actually said "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton, 1887 — not Orwell, not Churchill). The Famous Quotes deck on Flip It (deck code AE8055, 208 cards) covers two things at once: what the classic English sayings mean, and who coined the most misattributed lines in history. Here is how to get through all 208 without them blurring together.
Study this deck: Famous Quotes
1 / 10What does 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' mean?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
What the 208 cards actually contain
The deck runs alphabetically from A bird in the hand… to You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs: 199 meaning cards (proverb → one-line explanation) and 9 attribution cards ("Who said…?" → author, work, date).
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| What does 'All that glitters is not gold' mean? | Not everything that looks valuable or attractive is actually so |
| What does 'Let sleeping dogs lie' mean? | Don't disturb a situation that might cause trouble if changed |
| What does 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire' mean? | Escaping one problem only to encounter a worse one |
| What does 'Revenge is a dish best served cold' mean? | Revenge is more satisfying when planned and executed calmly, not in anger |
| What does 'One man's meat is another man's poison' mean? | What benefits one person may harm another |
| What is the Golden Rule? | Do unto others as you would have them do unto you |
| Who said 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind'? | Mahatma Gandhi |
| Who wrote 'Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven'? | John Milton in Paradise Lost |
| Who wrote 'Not all those who wander are lost'? | J.R.R. Tolkien in 1954 |
Also covered: Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Beauty is only skin deep, Curiosity killed the cat, Every cloud has a silver lining, Give a man a fish…, He who laughs last laughs longest, It ain't over till the fat lady sings, It takes two to tango, Money talks, Silence is golden, The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Variety is the spice of life — and the attributions: Lord Acton, Gandhi, Milton, Shakespeare (Brevity is the soul of wit; Love is blind, 1591), Benjamin Franklin, William Congreve (Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned), Laozi and Tolkien.
Three ways to study this deck
1. Separate the two card types. The nine "Who said…?" cards are pure recall: learn author + work + date as one chunk ("Congreve, The Mourning Bride" beats "some playwright"). Quizzes love these because most people guess Shakespeare for everything.
2. Group proverbs by theme, not by letter. Sort mentally into clusters: timing (Strike while the iron is hot / Make hay while the sun shines / Never put off until tomorrow), risk (A bird in the hand / Curiosity killed the cat / Let sleeping dogs lie), consequences (As you sow so shall you reap / The road to hell is paved with good intentions / You can't make an omelette…). Near-synonyms studied together stop being confusable.
3. Use the reverse direction. Once the meanings feel easy, flip the cards: read the explanation, produce the proverb. That is what a crossword, a pub quiz or an English exam actually tests.
Pace
50 meaning cards a day for four days (attributions every day), then the whole deck in reverse for three days, then spaced-repetition reviews only.
Log in at flip-it.app, open your library and search AE8055 – Famous Quotes. Show up for the daily session — as the deck itself says, practice makes perfect.
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