2020 top quotes include ‘Wear a mask’ and ‘I can’t breathe’

Donald Trump’s comments on coronavirus also made the list, as well as Joe Biden’s gaffes about black voters

Dr Fauci's plea for Americans to wear masks topped the list of the quotes of 2020. Reuters

George Floyd's last words of “I can’t breathe” and Dr Antony Fauci urging Americans to “wear a mask” are among the top 10 quotes of the year chosen by an associate director at the Yale Law School.

The quotes feature in The Yale Book of Quotations, which has been complied by Fred Shapiro since 2006.

Mr Shapiro has previously said he picks quotes that are famous or telling of the times.

The quote about the coronavirus pandemic from Dr Fauci, the US Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, topped the list.

This was followed by the harrowing words of ‘I can’t breathe’ by George Floyd, who died in May after a Minneapolis police office knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

US President Donald Trump secured two places in the top 10, with his fictitious comments about coronavirus “disappearing” and about bleach killing the virus.

Here are the top 10 quotes of the year, according to Yale

1. "Wear a mask." — Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
2. "I can't breathe." — as said by George Floyd to Minneapolis police before he was killed on May 25.
3. "One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear." — President Donald Trump said about Covid-19 on February 27.
4. "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" — the US president again during White House Coronavirus Task Force press conference in April, at the height of the pandemic.
5. "I will never lie to you. You have my word on that." — White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during her press conference on May 1.
6. "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died earlier this year, said in a statement dictated to her granddaughter Clara Spera.
7. "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black." — US President-elect Joe Biden infamously said on "The Breakfast Club" radio program on May 22.
8. "The science should not stand in the way of this." — Kayleigh McEnany about the reopening of US schools in July.
9. "You're a lying dog-faced pony soldier." — Mr Biden's put down on February 9 to a student who asked how he can win a national election after his poor results in Iowa.
10. "We are all Lakers today." — Los Angeles Clippers Coach Doc Rivers after the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash on January 26.