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Quotes of the Year 2010

Our annual collection of the dippy, inane, and occasionally brilliant


“A stupid person's idea of a clever person”

Julie Burchill gives herself credit for coining this description of Our National Treasure™ - which probably occurred to several million people at once, whenever Stephen Fry said something annoying or stupid. Which was quite often. Accept no substitutes.

The beauty of this one is that it is infinitely extensible:, ie, "A trick cyclist's idea of a boffin". It'll run and run.


“My hips, for Helienne”

Gentlemen have devised many ways of attracting the attention of the ladies - could this be the most inventive yet? Sadly, no. After a column by the Guardian's Helienne Lindvall asking why the "gurus of free" demand such exorbitant speaking fees, Cory Doctorow explained why he absolutely must travel first class. And offered proof.

Thanks, Cory!

The tiff concluded here. Pic: © Cory Doctorow - politically-correct licensing terms apply.


“What I'm seeing in my nerd brethren is an increasing combativeness, a loss of empathy, and creepiness. It's just another supremacy movement, ultimately. It just happens to be nerd supremacy."

Jaron Lanier, who wrote a pretty decent book about techno utopianian daftness this year, via the LA Times.


“Privacy is the place where we do bad things, we hide our misdemeanours, we hide the really embarrassing things we really wouldn’t want to tell our wives and children… In the last 15 or 20 years of doing this, I haven’t met one single person who’s banged on about his privacy who hasn’t done something wrong.”

Paul McMullan, a former News of the World editor. Via Guido.

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