Quotes of the week
After reflecting on this in recent weeks in the hills in west Kerry I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to contest a second term . . . It seemed to me that putting off a decision until halfway through a new Dáil probably was not the way to go. - Pat Rabbitte, who is to stand down as leader of the Labour Party.
One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like "boat people", "re-education camps" and "killing fields". - President Bush invoking the spectre of Vietnam to justify the military "surge" in Iraq.
You cannot ask for individuals from different countries to come [ to Ireland] and to shun their religious beliefs. - Palbinder Singh, a spokesman for a Sikh association affiliated to the London Metropolitan Police, commenting about a Sikh member of the Garda Reserve being told that he could not dress in his religious headwear while on duty.
We are in the unfortunate position that the most severe impacts from climate changes in summer are coinciding with, first of all, where population is greatest, and where there is the greatest potential for future growth. - Dr Conor Murphy, of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit at NUI Maynooth, suggesting that water shortages may be a regular problem for greater Dublin during this century.
What else can a dictator do? He has no leg to stand on . . . He is a desperate man. - Nawaz Sharif, the exiled former prime minister of Pakistan, after the country's supreme court overruled President Pervez Musharraf and said that Mr Sharif could return home.
It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like Aids, another Ebola or another Sars, sooner or later. - The World Health Organisation unveiling a study showing that infectious diseases are spreading faster today than at any other time.
For years, only negative reports on farm diseases, monstrous murders, floods and landslides have come from our village. - Zoran Babic, a councillor in the Serbian village of Zitiste, which has erected a 10-foot-high bronze statue of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa to promote a more positive image.
One had hoped that the days when artists were arrested for free expression were buried with totalitarian states, but Belarus is as close to a totalitarian state as you can get in Europe. - Playwright Tom Stoppard speaking after police in Belarus raided an underground drama group.
Demonising Chinese products or talking of the Chinese product threat, I think, is simply a new kind of protectionism. - Li Changjiang, of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, amid deepening concerns in the West over the safety of imported Chinese goods.
People are seeking to control their future rather than entrust their future to God's promise and plan. The result is an increasing culture of insecurity and fear. - The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Dr Seán Brady, decrying the vogue for psychics and fortune-tellers.
The flavours that come together - it's like heaven in your mouth. - April Kohlhaas, from Chicago, praising the Big Mac on its 40th birthday.