We are at war. I am a soldier. - Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the London bombers, in a taped suicide message.
It was like a war zone. There was shooting and looting, and I saw people beating women. It's . . . ugly. -
Anonymous resident of New Orleans, which has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Nothing about the President's demeanour yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis. - The New York Times on President George Bush's response to the desolation wrought in New Orleans.
There is no God. There is only military force. I believe in Russia and in our armed forces. That's what I believed in during the terrorist attack. - Chermen, a seven-year-old survivor of the massacre in Beslan a year ago.
It's not valid to say that the cost of Cap absorbs too high an amount of the EU budget. It's an argument made by my good friend and colleague Tony Blair but I have to say quite frankly, he's wrong. - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern defends the Common Agricultural Policy.
Some of the women build around the official jersey in a most imaginative and, may I say, attractive way. Others design their own concoctions. Wonderful sights for sore eyes. - GAA president Seán Kelly praises female GAA fans, in the match programme for the All-Ireland football quarter final between Tyrone and Dublin.
The great apes are our kin. Sadly, we have not treated them with the respect they deserve. - UN secretary general Kofi Annan on the plight of animals that could disappear from the wild within a human generation.
It's hard to believe if €68 million is being spent that our hospitals are in the mess they are in. - Janette Byrne, of lobby group Patients Together, as it emerges that over €68 million was set aside for cleaning the bulk of the State's public hospitals last year.
People say tragedy plus time equals comedy, but timing is iffy. - Matt Solo, an agent based in Los Angeles, on why TV executives have passed on a sitcom based on a group of terrorists.
We have lost count . . . we have hundreds and hundreds of dead. We can't tell how many. - An Iraqi health ministry official after the stampede during a Shia pilgrimage in Baghdad that appears to have been started by rumours there was a suicide bomber in the crowd.
I want a BMW, not a Mercedes, a BMW series X5. That's what you have if you become a queen. - Gindza Mondlanha (22), one of 50,000 topless virgins who was paraded in front of King Mswati III of Swaziland in the hope of becoming his 14th wife. The country, one of the world's poorest, has been ravaged by Aids.
We would prefer to solve our problems first - such as electricity, water and security. - Ali Sami, a resident of Baghdad, says that Iraqis have more pressing problems than the crisis over agreeing on a constitution.
I do not think that those scare stories about clothing shortages comparable to those experienced in the last world war are remotely justified, and I hope that such hyperbole can now be put aside. - Peter Mandelson, the European trade commissioner, rejects suggestions that trade restrictions on China will lead to dramatic shortages of cheap clothing.
If you have only two Christian names, add a third, preferably something like "St John", or your mother's maiden name, especially if from a clerical family. As you climb the ladder of preferment, you might want to make it double-barrelled. - Rev Ted Woods gives junior Church Of Ireland clergy some advice on how to get ahead.
Instead of never-ending debates about institutions, let's work with what we've got. Political will and leadership are more important than institutions. - José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, says there are "no magical formulae" to revive the EU constitution.
Of course there are people who ask me am I making sandwiches for the little green men, but many people are genuinely interested in recent sightings. - Betty Meyler of the UFO Society of Ireland, which held its second annual conference this week.