From Barbie's unexpected wisdom to dissent among Kennedys, these are the top quotes of 2023
HARTFORD, Conn.– From discord within the Kennedy family to the unexpected wisdom of Barbie, Yale's list of notable 2023 quotes has something to offer for just about everyone.
This year's list is led by the siblings of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who condemned his presidential bid.
“Bobby may have the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” his siblings said in a joint statement in October. “We condemn his candidacy.”
Their father was Robert F. Kennedy, the United States Attorney General, Senator of New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy Jr. is a best-selling author and environmental attorney who is running as an independent candidate after abandoning his efforts for the Democratic nomination. He has been one of the leading voices of the anti-vaccination movement, and health experts have joined his family members in describing his work as misleading and dangerous.
The remarkable quotation list, compiled each year by Fred Shapiro, associate director at the Yale Law Library, is a companion to The New Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Shapiro and published by Yale University Press.
Nearly a year before George Santos was expelled from Congress on December 1, he said something that was so widely criticized and derided that it landed at No. 2 on this year's list. “I have never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. “Because I heard that my mother's family had a Jewish background, I said I was 'Jewish,'” he said.
That quote appears next to a memorable line from Barbie, played by Margot Robbie in one of this year's blockbuster films, Shapiro said. “Do you ever think about dying?” she asked, making her number 5 on the list.
“The items on this list are not necessarily eloquent or admirable quotes, but are chosen because they are famous or important or particularly revealing of the spirit of our times,” Shapiro said.
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THE LIST
1. “Bobby may share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment… We condemn his candidacy.” – Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, joint statement, October 9, 2023.
2. “I have never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I heard that my mother's family had a Jewish background, I said I was 'Jewish'.” – Former Congressman George Santos, New York Post, December 26, 2022 .
3. “We do not swear an oath to a wannabe dictator… We swear an oath to the Constitution.” – Army Gen. Mark Milley, says during his retirement ceremony as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, September 29, 2023.
4. “He is clearly losing the war in Iraq.” – President Joe Biden on Russian President Vladimir Putin, remarks to reporters on the war in Ukraine, June 28, 2023.
5. “Do you ever think about dying?” — Margot Robbie in the movie “Barbie”, 2023.
6. “We thought we could start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world…I believe we did.” — Cillian Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer in the film “Oppenheimer”, 2023.
7. “I probably trust the answers coming out of ChatGPT the least of anyone on earth.” — Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, says at a forum in India, June 8, 2023.
8. “Karma is the Chiefs guy who comes right home to me.” — Taylor Swift, revised lyrics of the song “Karma,” November 11, 2023.
9. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American billionaire, possessing sufficient fortune, must be in need of a Supreme Court justice.” – Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri, op-ed, June 23, 2023.
10. “Just because race is considered irrelevant in law does not mean it is the same in life.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissenting from Students for Fair Admissions Inc. to President and Fellows of Harvard College, June 29, 2023.