2011's Top Quote: 'We Are The 99 Percent'
Fred Shapiro, a Yale Law School librarian and well-known authority on quotations, just released his sixth annual list of the most memorable quotations of the year. The top three quotes all deal with statements made by people protesting the income disparity in the U.S. The Occupy Wall Street protesters' slogan --We are the 99 percent - was the list's top quote.
Here are the top ten quotes of the year, as listed by Shapiro and cited in the Associated Press:
1. We are the 99 percent. - slogan of Occupy movement.
2. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. - U.S. senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August.
3. My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. - Billionaire Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15.
4. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy. - Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, in an Aug. 18 tweet.
5. Oops. - Presidential candidate Rick Perry, after unsuccessfully attempting to remember the third federal agency of the federal Cabinet agencies he had previously stated he would eliminate, during a Nov. 9 debate.
6. When they ask me, 'Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?' I'm going to say, 'You know, I don't know. Do you know?' - Then-presidential candidate Herman Cain, in an interview by Christian Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7.
7. I am on a drug. It's called 'Charlie Sheen.' It's not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body. - Actor Charlie Sheen, in a February interview with ABC News.
8. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. - Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' last words on Oct. 5, as reported by his sister Mona Simpson in her eulogy.
9. I can't say with certitude. - Then-U.S. Rep. Anthony Wiener on June 1, when he was asked whether a lewd photograph sent through his Twitter account was in fact him.
10. Instead of receiving the help that she had hoped for, Mr. Cain instead decided to provide her with his idea of a stimulus package. - Lawyer Gloria Allred on Nov. 7, discussing Herman Cain's alleged sexual harassment of her client.
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