Photo by Prateek Gautam

“Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!” —insurrectionist shouts during the attack of the U.S Capitol on January 6^th.

“We don’t want you to think of Lexi as just a number. She was intelligent, compassionate, and athletic. She was quiet, shy unless she had a point to make.” —Kimberly Rubio, mother of Lexi Rubio—one of 21 killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas—testifying before the House Oversight Committee calling for tighter restrictions on guns.

“I don’t believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde, and we’ve seen in far too many communities. Doing nothing is an abdication of our responsibility as representatives of the American people here in the United States Senate.”  —Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn who, along with democratic colleagues, passed the first major federal gun reform in decades.

“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” —Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after signing what the LGPTQ community and others call the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” —Elon Musk in a memo to Twitter employees on his first day after buying the social media giant.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” —Elon Musk, two days after he asked his 122 million Twitter followers whether he should step down as the leader of the site. A majority said, “YES!”

“We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.” —Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority opinion in overturning Roe v. Wade, a 50-year-old federal law which guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion.

“I care about decency and humanity and kindness. Kindness today is an act of rebellion.” —Pink

“Here’s a true story, man. I learned English because of you. My grandfather who raised me…I used to sit on his lap and listen to you every day. So, it’s a pretty special moment for me, man. Thank you very much.” —Burt Thakur, contestant on one of the last episodes of the game show Jeopardy hosted by Alex Trebek.

“There will come a time when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” —Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican representative and vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol addressing her House colleagues about their support or silence regarding the former president’s actions before and during January 6. Cheney was not reelected to office.

“Ethics is having the character and the courage to do the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay.” —Michael Josephson, ethicist, teacher.

“Waking up in truth is so much better than living in a lie.” —Idris Elba

“This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit” that was agreed in Paris in 2015. —U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres

“Knowing the right thing doesn’t mean much if you don’t do the right thing.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“I’m not going to make excuses for this, but a lot of people overstate in their resumes, or twist a little bit. … I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that.” —Representative-elect George Santos of New York admitting that he lied about parts of his resume during his campaign.

“He was never untruthful with me.” —campaign supporter who contributed $2,900 and still supports Santos.

“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” —Walter Lippmann, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter/commentator.

“It’s Alma Powell. She was with me the whole time. We’ve been married 58 years. And she put up with a lot. She took care of the kids when I was, you know, running around. And she was always there for me and she’d tell me, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ She was usually right.” —Colin Powell, in his last published interview, when asked who was the greatest person he’d ever known.

“President Reagan suddenly said to me, ‘What would you do if the United States were suddenly attacked by someone from outer space? Would you help us?’ I said, ‘No doubt about it.'” —Mikhail Gorbachev, describing a conversation with President Reagan in 1985.

“We’ll celebrate Christmas. Celebrate Christmas and, even if there is no electricity, the light of our faith in ourselves will not be put out.” —Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to Congress.

“I look forward to going back home, but I guess it was a nice break from everything.” —Livae Nanijikana, one of two men rescued after surviving 29 days adrift off the coast of the Solomon Islands.