Most high schools allow grade 12 students to choose a quote for the caption of their yearbook photo. But for many students, myself included, it’s a toss up between submitting something serious and opting for something a little, well, sillier. To make your decision a bit easier, I have compiled a list of possible yearbook quotes-some profound, and others ridiculous- from some interesting and unlikely places.
When I found this, I liked it immediately- it’s clear, it’s profound, it’s proactive… But what I liked the most about it is that it’s from the children’s cartoon Kim Possible. Quite recently, I… well, I re-watched the entire series. I came across this little gem on episode 76, during a scene in which an evil side character is convincing the show’s villain to open a cupcakery.
On the serious-silly spectrum, this one definitely falls among the silly, but it’s still a great quote to use in your yearbook. And if any of your classmates are curious enough to Google “Bill Watterson”, they’ll discover that he’s the writer of the Calvin and Hobbes comics. I dare you to try to find someone more worth quoting.
Any profound statements made by rap artists, pop singers, or Kardashians are perfect grad quotes. In these, you have the perfect recipe for a memorable yearbook caption: they’re surprising, they’re current, they’re funny, and, despite all of this, they can still be pretty insightful.
This is probably the perfect quote to use if you want to quote Donald Trump ironically. (I’ll just assume that everyone who wants to quote Donald Trump is doing it ironically; if you want people to think of you as an asshole, there are probably more effective ways to go about it than by choosing a sincere Donald Trump quote for the yearbook.) As far as ironic quotes go, Trump is a safer bet than someone like Hitler or Joseph Stalin, whose words, no matter how uplifting, people will take offence to. The quotation I have included above is likely your best bet, but basically any Donald Trump quote you use is going to sound ironic, especially if you’re known for opposing many of Trump’s ideas. In fact, you could always opt for one of his more inspiring quotes, like “You have to think anyway, so why not think big?” and still get the same effect.
At the very least, quoting Jaden Smith’s Twitter feed is sure to give your classmates a laugh, and will probably leave them with a lasting impression of you that three years of high school together was simply not enough to create. The beauty of Jaden Smith quotes is that they are sometimes completely ridiciculous, and other times just comically profound; for every post that says “Dying is mainstream #money” there’s a “We need to stop teaching youth about the past and encourage them to change the future.”
Now, this isn’t something my grandma said as much as it’s some total bullshit I just made up on the spot, but it is presumably something that somebody’s grandma might have said at some point. Basically, what I’m saying is that you should quote your grandma. Quote your grandpa. Quote your great uncle Lou. Or better yet, ask your grandma what her favourite saying is and just attribute it to her, because this is a high school yearbook and not a fully cited term paper.
Life is too short NOT to quote Attila the Hun. (And while I feel that the previous sentence would make an equally interesting grad quote, maybe just stick to an actual quote by Attila the Hun.) Not only is his name inexplicably fun to say, but enough time has passed since his barbaric rule that it is almost completely okay to use him in your yearbook. If Night at the Museum can get away with it, then so can you.
And when all else fails… just quote Ellen. Everybody in your school could use this exact same quote and it would be okay, because it’s Ellen. Quoting Ellen in your yearbook is like getting a speeding ticket- if enough people didn’t, they’d have to raise taxes.
