The Journal loves a good quote. Here are 10 that caught our eye in 2014

10 - “Picasso could paint all the buildings downtown, but if he doesn’t have permission it’s still graffiti.”

- Sarnia Police Const. Chris Moxley, who uses social media to track taggers

9 - “It’s sad to see the school go. But at the end of the day it is just a building. The school spirit comes from what people do in the school. That’s what’s important.”

- Co-valedictorian Charlotte Stoesser, on the closure of St. Patrick’s High School on East Street

8  - “We were right out of high school, but we were already bringing babies into the world and closing the eyes on the dead.”

- Janet Thompson, who organized a reunion of the 1954 graduating class from the Sarnia General Hospital School of Nursing

7 - “We go out Thursday evening one time a month to a local nursing home and make people happy. You see the residents smiling, tapping their feet, and you know you’re doing something good.”

- Carol Gilmurray, of Seaway Sounds, an all-woman a cappella chorus aged 18 to 78 that sings in four-part harmony

6 - “Everyone is digital and computers, but none of them can even paint a straight line (or) mix colours.”

- Dave Beatty, one of the last manual sign painters left in a high-tech industry

5 - “It’s worth $143 a year to do that. And if the clouds are just right, bang, I can be right there. The lake is such a magnificent thing, just to stand there sometimes and watch the rain fall, the wildness of it all, in awe and wonder.”

- J. Allison Robichaud, outdoor landscape painter, who joined the Sarnia Yacht Club so he could paint Lake Huron undisturbed

4  - “I once saw a reference to Lucasville as home to the four ‘tions’ - cultivation, damnation, education and salvation. Apparently, standing at the crossroads, you could turn a circle and see a farm, a saloon, a school and a church.”

- Historian Bob McCarthy on the hamlet of Lucasville

3 - “Children are still dying, children are still suffering from treatment. When they can finally close all the childhood cancer wards then I’ll be done.”

- Bob Thomas, founder of Sarnia’s R.O.C.K. Ride, which has raised more than $300,000 to fight childhood cancers.

2 - “You give and take. I know a bad day, and I know when to go outside and pull dandelions.”

- Alfred Ruffilli, on his 70-year marriage to wife Noreen

1 - “I drove down to Cancun with a friend and that was quite a drive. I can’t imagine doing it with wings.”

- Ross Durance, who raises monarch butterflies, on their migration to Mexico.