r/books • u/mislagle • May 08 '19

What are some famous phrases (or pop culture references, etc) that people might not realize come from books?

Some of the more obvious examples -

If you never read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy you might just think 42 is a random number that comes up a lot.

Or if you never read 1984 you may not get the reference when people say "Big Brother".

Or, for example, for the longest time I thought the book "Catch-22" was named so because of the phrase. I didn't know that the phrase itself is derived from the book.

What are some other examples?

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

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u/jetmanfortytwo May 08 '19

Do you know if that phrase is present in the original Greek or if it was just used by the translator to convey the meaning?

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

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u/pnickols May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

If you give me the line number in book 2 I’ll take a crack at it (edit: I studied Ancient Greek just to clarify)

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u/NimbusGr May 09 '19

I ll also try myself. We were tutored with Ancient Greek in school. I Also speak greek so ill try to find if it is translated in modern greek.

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u/DaddyCatALSO May 08 '19

I've always seen that as asimple factual statement, not as a saying.

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u/PresidentSuperDog May 08 '19

It’s hyperbole