# Literary quotes as book titles: a trivia quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673 "2026-03-21T22:13:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/1 "2026-03-21T22:13:20Z")
It seems that it was commonplace in 20th century literature to use as the title of your work, a quote from classic literature. Perhaps to draw parallels; perhaps just to borrow some gravitas. Here are all the examples that came to mind; I’ve given the citation in spoiler boxes. Test your literary pedantry! Google and Bartlet’s Quotations would be cheating, and cheaters never prosper. And add your own examples! Ernest Hemingway, “The Sun Also Rises” Ecclesiastes 1:2-5: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is a vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever. **The sun also ariseth."** Ernest Hemingway, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” John Donne, “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions” (1624) “…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know f **or whom the bell tolls;** it tolls for thee.” John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath” Julia Ward Howe, “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862): "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; he is trampling out the vintage where **the grapes of wrath** are stored.’ John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” Genesis 4:16: "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, **east of Eden."** William Faulkner, “The Sound and the Fury” Shakespeare, Macbeth Act V scene 5: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of **sound and fury** , signifying nothing.” Margaret Mitchell, “Gone With the Wind” Ernest Dowson, “Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae” (1896): “I have forgot much, Cynara! **gone with the wind** , Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” Shakespeare, The Tempest Act V Scene 1: “O **brave new world** , that has such people in’t!” “Chariots of Fire” (Film) William Blake, “And did those feet in ancient time” (1804): "Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold: Bring me my **Chariot of fire**!" Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, “Inherit the Wind” (Play) Proverbs 11:29: “He that troubleth his own house shall **inherit the wind** : and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.” Jame Jones, “From Here to Eternity” Rudyard Kipling, “Gentlemen-Rankers” (1892): "Gentlemen-rankers out on a spree, Damned **from here to Eternity** , God ha’ mercy on such as we, Baa! Yah! Bah!" A Yale a cappella group set Kipling’s words to music, and called it “The Whiffenpoof Song”. Stephen E. Ambrose, “Band of Brothers” Shakespeare, Henry V Act IV Scene 3: “We few, we happy few, we **band of brothers** ; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/2 "2026-03-22T00:03:36Z")
Robert Heinlein’s **Stranger in a Strange Land** From Exodus 22 “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.” ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/3 "2026-03-22T00:17:27Z")
Good one, Andy! ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/4 "2026-03-22T00:26:41Z")
Ray Bradbury’s short story collection **The Golden Apples of the Sun** Quotes a line from a W. B. Yeats poem, which can be found here: [The Golden Apples of the Sun - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Apples_of_the_Sun). ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/5 "2026-03-22T00:32:51Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > Ray Bradbury’s short story collection **The Golden Apples of the Sun** Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes”: Shakespeare, MacBeth: By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/6 "2026-03-22T00:33:50Z")
I knew this one, only because that line comes up in the movie that’s shown every year around this time. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/7 "2026-03-22T01:33:29Z")
“Of Mice and Men.” “To Kill a Mockingbird.” ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/8 "2026-03-22T01:40:52Z")
I know the source of Mice and Men, but I don’t think TKAM is anything other than a line in the book. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/9 "2026-03-22T01:42:47Z")
I haven’t read it, but I think it’s from an old Russian proverb (or did Harper Lee make that up?). ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/10 "2026-03-22T01:44:59Z")
Probably the latter. Somebody says “you can shoot all the blue jays you want but it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/11 "2026-03-22T02:11:55Z")
Now, Voyager: the Walt Whitman poem “The Untold Want” Look Homeward, Angel: the John Milton poem “Lycidas” The Sheep Look Up: the John Milton poem “Lycidas” All the King’s Men: the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty ” Raisin in the Sun (play): the poem “Harlem” (also known as “A Dream Deferred”) by Langston Hughe s ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/12 "2026-03-22T02:36:40Z")
W. Somerset Maugham’s _[Of Human Bondage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Human_Bondage)_: From a section of the philosophical treatise _Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order_, by Baruch Spinoza (1677). Its working title was _Beauty From Ashes_, which, too, was a literary reference: “”…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes" (Isaiah 61:3) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/13 "2026-03-22T02:43:41Z")
Not a quote but _A Confederacy of Dunces_ got its title from a Jonathan Swift epigram, “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/14 "2026-03-22T02:52:50Z")
“The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side”, by Agatha Christie. From “The Lady of Shalott” by Tennyson: Out flew the web and floated wide— The mirror crack’d from side to side; “The curse is come upon me,” cried The Lady of Shalott. She had some others, too: “By the Pricking of my Thumbs”, from Macbeth. “Taken at the Flood”, from Julius Caesar. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/15 "2026-03-22T02:58:28Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > “The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side”, by Agatha Christie. This reminded me… Ingmar Bergman’s 1961 film _Såsom i en spegel_ (“As in a Mirror”) was titled _Through a Glass Darkly_ in English-speaking countries: “For now we see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/16 "2026-03-22T08:31:21Z")
_Dare to Go A-Hunting_ by Andre Norton is a near quotation of _The Fairies_ by William Allingham, deliberately differing by just one word; “dare” instead of “daren’t”. Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren’t go a-hunting. For fear of little men. * * * _My Brother’s Keeper_ by Charles Sheffield is a Bible reference. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/17 "2026-03-22T13:03:11Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > William Faulkner, “The Sound and the Fury” Also from Faulkner, while not a direct quote, is _Absalom, Absalom!_, a reference to 2 Samuel 18:23 and/or 19:4: “But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/18 "2026-03-22T13:14:00Z")
Also Heinlein: _The Number of the Beast_ “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13:18 (The Bible) _I Will Fear No Evil_ “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4 (The Bible) _To Sail Beyond the Sunset_ “…for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.” -“Ulysses” (poem by Tennyson) ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/19 "2026-03-22T13:40:33Z")
Kings Go Forth, by Joe David Brown: And it came to pass, after _the year was expired_, at the time when kings go forth to battle…" 2 Samuel, 11:1 The Bible ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/20 "2026-03-22T13:40:39Z")
The Coen Brothers, **O Brother, Where Art Thou?** Per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F): The title of the film is a reference to the 1941 Preston Sturges film Sullivan’s Travels, in which the protagonist is a director who wants to film _O Brother, Where Art Thou?_, a fictitious book about the Great Depression. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673.md?page=2)