As you know, fake quotes are a dime a dozen, especially these days. Recently the Republican National Committee tweeted this quote, attributing it to Lincoln, though he never said it: “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.” Indeed, the quote came from a 1947 advertisement for a book about aging.

So, Op-Editor David Leonhardt, of the NYTs, has put together this quiz, and the answers are on the link to their FB page. Here's the quiz:

In honor of all great quotations, fake and real, we give you a short game this morning. Each of the below is frequently attributed to Winston Churchill or Thomas Jefferson. You need to pair each with one of four possible answers: Real Churchill, Fake Churchill, Real Jefferson or Fake Jefferson.
The quiz includes two entries from each category. We’ve posted the answers on the Opinion section’s Facebook page.
1. A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing.
2. Capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others.
3. Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.
4. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
5. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
6. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
7. That government is best which governs least.
8. The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

No takers on this quiz? I'd think some of our English posters would know the Churchill quotes, at least.

I've no idea which is real and which is fake, but I'l guess the attributions for Churchill are 2,3,5 and 8.

I think Churchill said #4. That's the one I feel most sure of and that's not saying much. After that, I am going to guess with even less certainty that Churchill also said #6 or should that be #8? LOL

For Jefferson, I am going to choose #1 and #3 as real quotations of his. I have no reason for doing so. I will say #2 and @5 are fake quotes of his.

This leaves #7, which I will have to guess by process of elimination is a fake quote for Churchill/ and of course, I couldn't decide whether #6 or #8 was the real quote.

I did terrible on this!

Yes, they aren't easy, that's for sure. Just today there was an editorial in the Tribune that ended with a supposed Mark Twain quote, though Shu is sure he didn't really say it: "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." You can't really trust those online quote sites.

I have found now that I am not trusting any quotes. I used to always check my big, thick Bartlett's quotes, but now I tend to go online. I think I should go back to the book.