BookOpinion

The best good and bad quotes last forever or at least until the end of the year … for example, making your “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!” T-shirt still a worthy Christmas present.

While a delicious quote on a T-shirt might bleach out in the wash, a book of memorable quotes lasts a lot longer. Fred R. Shapiro, an associate librarian and lecturer at the Yale Law School, is the editor of “The Yale Book of Quotations,” released earlier this year after six years of research. It contains about 13,000 quotes, each extensively researched to verify its origin. He expects to add about 1,000 more quotes — mostly modern — for the next edition of his book in about five years.

More recently, Shapiro released a list of the 10 most memorable quotes of 2007. With help from the Associated Press, here’s the list from bottom to top:

10. “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.”

Former President Jimmy Carter, referring to the Bush administration in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper

9. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Sen. Joseph Biden, referring to rival Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama

8. “(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom.”

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, explaining why his foot touched the foot of an undercover police officer in an airport men’s room

7. “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, referring to Republican Vice President Dick Cheney

6. “There’s only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”

Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking during a debate for Democratic presidential candidates

5. “I don’t recall.”

Former U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales’ repeated response to questions from members of Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys

4. “That’s some nappy-headed hos there.”

Radio personality Don Imus, referring to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team

3. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during a speaking engagement at Columbia University in New York

2. “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.”

Lauren Upton, the South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen America contest, when asked why one-fifth of Americans cannot find the U.S on a map

1. “Don’t tase me, bro.”

Andrew Meyer, a senior at the University of Florida, after being hauled away by campus police during a speech made by Sen. John Kerry.

Don’t Tase Me, Bro! The Video

Now that I’ve refreshed your memory on some top unforgettable quotes of 2007, I recommend getting your hands on an extensive list found in “The Yale Book of Quotations.”

This from Booklist’s Carolyn Mulac:

To paraphrase Ira Gershwin, “on every [page] that you turn you meet a notable with a statement that is eminently quotable” in this collection. According to editor Shapiro, this is “the first quotation book to be compiled using state-of-the-art research methods to seek out quotations and to trace quotation sources.” He compares his approach with that of the Oxford English Dictionary: he, too, traces words back to their earliest possible usages. Using a variety of electronic sources, such as JSTOR, LexisNexis, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, andTimes Digital Archive, scores of quotations were verified, and in many cases reverified. The more than 12,000 quotations collected here span a wide array of subjects, from literature, philosophy, and history to science, business, and politics.

Quotations are presented alphabetically by the name of the author or speaker. Shakespeare and the Bible, the mother lodes of quotations, are amply represented, but emphasis is on “modern and American materials.” Children’s authors, who are often ignored in other dictionaries, are quoted here. There are a number of special sections devoted to particular types of quotations, among them advertising slogans, ballads, film lines, political slogans, and radio and television catchphrases. Song lyrics are entered by the name of the composer, and film lines appear either under the film title in the special section devoted to movie lines or, if they originated in a book or play upon which the film was based, under the author of that literary source. Proverbs span the centuries and often include evidence of a saying’s first print appearance. A keyword index, an essential element of any quotation dictionary, rounds out the text.

Don’t disappoint me, bro…go check out “The Yale Book of Quotations” now!

- Alexander