Picking the top 10 quotes of the year is never easy. But Yale law librarian Fred Shapiro, who has been compiling such a list for The Associated Press since 2005, had a particularly tough task in 2020 thanks to a global pandemic, a bitter presidential election, and national unrest over racism and inequality.

All of which is to say that Shapiro had plenty of fodder for this year’s list, even if most of it was negative.