Mental Floss

Who Said It: Theodore Roosevelt or ‘Game of Thrones’ Character?

Can you tell the difference between quotes by the 26th president of the United States and quotes by characters on the hit HBO show?
Bymentalfloss .com|
Theodore Roosevelt (left), Maisie Williams as Arya Stark (right).
Theodore Roosevelt (left), Maisie Williams as Arya Stark (right). | Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images (Roosevelt), Helen Sloan/HBO (Williams), Justin Dodd/Mental Floss (quiz)

What do great presidents and great television shows have in common? They’re both eminently quotable. Whether it’s coming from Thomas Jefferson or the cast of The Jeffersons, a good turn of phrase can solidify a place in cultural history.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was one such president: His ennobling and adroit observations would have been right at home in the Oval Office or in King’s Landing. See if you can tell which of these quotes came from our 26th president and which came from Game of Thrones in the quiz below:

Like many Thrones characters, Roosevelt was an adventure-seeker. When his boat was stolen from his Missouri ranch in 1886, Roosevelt had his ranch hands build a whole new boat, and the three of them took off after the thieves. (He brought along Anna Karenina as reading material.) After three days of pursuit, he found them—and his boat—and ended up marching the thieves to justice over the brutal landscape of the Dakotas’ Badlands.

Later, while sparring with a fellow boxer, Roosevelt suffered a permanent injury to his left eye. And while he had no dragons, his time in the White House was notable for the wide menagerie of animals he kept on the grounds, including bears, a zebra, a lion, and snakes. Like several of the show’s actors, he was also comfortable with nudity, once going for an impromptu skinny-dipping session with the French ambassador.

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