Here are the ten best tech quotes of 2012, based on how much I like the line and how much it mattered.
10. “If I ever thought I wasn’t the right guy for the job, I’d be the first person to fire myself.”
Andrew Mason, the beleaguered C.E.O. of Groupon, responding to rumors this fall that his time at the company is limited.
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**9. “BREAKING: Con Edison has begun shutting down ALL power in Manhattan.”
False information tweeted out by someone using the handle @comfortablysmug when Hurricane Sandy hit. Social media was a source of comfort, correct news, and chaos during crisis.
8. “Mr. Saverin spits in their eye, he spits in the eye of the American people.”
Senator Bob Casey’s statement upon learning that Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, had renounced his American citizenship, perhaps for tax purposes, before the company’s I.P.O.
7. “The baby’s been easy.”
Yahoo’s new C.E.O., Marissa Mayer, speaking at a recent conference. She has been both criticized and praised for her short maternity leave.
6. “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low-level or senior operatives, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”
Israel’s @IDFspokesperson’s tweet at the start of the conflict with Hamas. Questions arose about whether the threat violated Twitter’s terms of service.
5. “This seat’s taken.”
Barack Obama, on Twitter, shortly after Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
4. “It’s a different world we’re going into but it’s all based on the Internet. It’s all based on these connections. If you start limiting the connections, you’re going backwards as a society.”
Glenn Beck, opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act—a bill, and a cause, that made for strange bedfellows.
3. “We’re going to periodically stand up, just to make sure we’re all alive.”
The judge in the Apple-Samsung patent trial, before reading extensive jury instructions.
2. “Turn left into the water.”
The best line from a Tumblr page devoted to Apple’s terrible mapping app.
1. “I could care less about who sleeps with whom, or where, or how—as long as it’s not in my own bed while I’m trying to sleep. Well, to be honest, not even in the same room while I’m trying to sleep. Barring that, nothing could concern me less.”
The inimitable John McAfee, tech-titan-turned-fugitive.
Read the best technology quotes of 2011.
Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty.
