WE have been pushed too far. If [Mr Ahern] believes he can push us to where he thinks he wants us to be, he will get his answer before mid-March.
- From a secret Sinn Fein document described by security sources as an indication that republicans are contemplating a return to IRA violence if the party is excluded from the new executive
Sinn Fein are getting this wrong; they are not interpreting the nationalist community properly.
- Former Catholic priest Denis Bradley, who has urged Sinn Fein to compromise on decommissioning
I have always thought the IRA were out to gain as much as they could from [the Belfast Agreement] before wrecking it and returning to violence.
- UUP deputy leader, John Taylor
The promise of the agreement is now so tantalisingly close to becoming a reality that we cannot allow ourselves to contemplate failure.
- The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews
I don't think we have failed. We have just found another way that doesn't work.
- Andy Elson, would-be round-the-world balloonist
Opportunities for feeling pessimistic are unfortunately far more frequent than they used to be.
- The American director Stanley Kubrick, who died this week.
He copied no one, yet all of us were scrambling to imitate him.
- Steven Spielberg on Kubrick
Not only has [Padraig] Flynn not replied to the allegations, but he expects to continue in public life, to clock up a third pension to add to his Dail and ministerial pensions.
- Gay Mitchell (FG) on the £50,000 Gilmartin donation issue
You must understand that, political donations to political parties or to individuals, there's nothing illegal about that. There never was.
- Padraig Flynn
Luckily for men, female taste is all over the place. One woman's "Wow!" is another woman's "Yuk!"
- The author, Fay Weldon
Because out there is some kid seeing me play for the first time. I owe him my best.
- The late Joe DiMaggio on why he gave each game his all
It would have been nice to be in a bedroom with candles and music, but sex is really all about what is going on in the soul and the spirit.
- Monica Lewinsky talking about her relationship with President Clinton
They sayin' that this gonna be my hardest-ever fight! Don't look too hard to me.
- Evander Holyfield, on tonight's fight with Lennox Lewis
I can live with all this putdown stuff because I know that it's within me to become the undisputed champion of the world.
- Lennox Lewis
These soldiers were the elite. They were supposed to be well-trained and they slaughtered these two young people.
- SDLP Assembly member Dr Joe Hendron, after the acquittal of Paratrooper Lee Clegg for the murder of Karen Reilly (18) in 1990. Clegg is awaiting sentencing on the charge of wounding Martin Peake (17)
Will she stop substituting oul' blather for real action in this regard?
- Emmet Stagg (Lab) to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, on the ESB dispute
The only blather I hear is from the deputy. He is great at it . . . This is the arch-blatherer of Dail Eireann.
- Ms O'Rourke