The Year in Quotes

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January

‘Now is the time to act or get stuck with a bland, boring career politician who will lose to Barack Obama.’
RICK SANTORUM, former U.S. Senator, during the Republican primary

February

‘My husband cannot f—ing throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.’
—GISELE BÜNDCHEN, wife of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, responding to a heckler

‘I’m not in love with David Petraeus. But I think he does present a terrific role model.’
PAULA BROADWELL, promoting her Petraeus biography, All In

‘You’re only two years older than me, darling.’
—CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, 82, to his Oscar, after becoming the award’s oldest winner ever

‘I’m against very wealthy people … influencing elections. But as long as it’s doable, I’m going to do it.’
—SHELDON ADELSON, who donated $150 million to Republican candidates in 2012 campaigns

March

‘I promised you we would win. We have won.’
—VLADIMIR PUTIN, declaring victory in Russia’s presidential election

‘If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.’
—PRESIDENT OBAMA, referring to slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin

April

‘It is … a triumph of the people.’
—AUNG SAN SUU KYI, after her National League for Democracy party won 43 of 45 available parliamentary seats in Burma

May

‘I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.’
—PRESIDENT OBAMA

‘The flames of war will reach you everywhere.’
—ANSAR AL-SHARI’A, militant group, claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing in Yemen

‘Today Facebook went public, just as Myspace’s last user went private.’
—CONAN O’BRIEN, comedian, on the social-media giant’s IPO

‘I was dead wrong.’
—JAMIE DIMON, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, recanting his claim that the fallout over his bank’s $2 billion trading loss was “a tempest in a teapot”

June

‘The lesson of this crisis is more Europe, not less Europe.’
—ANGELA MERKEL, Chancellor of Germany, calling for unified financial reform

‘We cannot believe that the world is watching us being killed.’
—AHMAD, activist in Syria

‘It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.’
—JOHN ROBERTS, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, after upholding Obama’s health care law

‘For the first time in history, we have our own President, elected by us.’
—ABDUL MAWGOUD DARDERY, member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, after Mohamed Morsi won the country’s June 24 election

July

‘My maternity leave will be a few weeks long, and I’ll work throughout it.’
—MARISSA MAYER, who announced her pregnancy shortly after becoming CEO of Yahoo

August

‘It’s what I came here to do. I’m now a legend.’
—USAIN BOLT, Jamaican sprinter, after winning his second consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 100-m and 200-m dashes

‘If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.’
—TODD AKIN, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate

September

‘Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.’
—BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister

‘There are 47% of the people who will vote for the President no matter what … My job is not to worry about those people.’
—MITT ROMNEY, Republican candidate for President, in a secretly recorded video that went viral

October

‘The crime is not only what you did to their bodies but to their psyches and their souls.’
—JOHN CLELAND, judge, sentencing child molester and ex–Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to prison

‘I’m coming home.’
—FELIX BAUMGARTNER, Austrian daredevil, before skydiving 24 miles (39 km) from the stratosphere

‘This has been the perfect battle.’
—HUGO CHÁVEZ, after winning a fourth term as President of Venezuela

‘If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me.’
—CHRIS CHRISTIE, Governor of New Jersey, the morning after Superstorm Sandy

November

‘I showed extremely poor judgment.’
—DAVID PETRAEUS, resigning as CIA director amid news of an affair with Paula Broadwell

‘You have decades upon decades to contemplate what you did. But after today … Gabby and I are done thinking about you.’
—MARK KELLY, husband of former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, at the sentencing hearing for her shooter, Jared Loughner

‘I just want to sleep and exercise and travel for fun. And relax. It sounds so ordinary, but I haven’t done it for 20 years.’
—HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. Secretary of State, on life after she steps down from her Cabinet position

December

‘This is the fate of all free people and all people who build great things.’
—MOHAMED MORSI, President of Egypt, calling for a referendum to approve the new constitution

‘It smells like freedom.’
—TIMOTHY TIPTON, marijuana activist, after Colorado legalized the drug

‘We were told to hold each other’s hands and to close our eyes.’
—VANESSA BAJRALIU, a 9-year-old student at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., describing her classmates’ evacuation after the massacre that killed 20 children and six adult employees