It's absurd, is my statement. - President Bush, dismissing opinion polls which show Europeans regard the US as a greater threat to world peace than North Korea.
The vast majority of asylum seekers would be economic migrants. They come from poverty and are seeking to better themselves and in doing so are invariably lying through their teeth. - Seán Aylward, secretary general of the Department of Justice.
The reality is there are no electoral pacts. There are no deals. We don't do that in our party. - Tánaiste Mary Harney says she made no arrangement with Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to step down as PD leader before the next election.
We have to make a great effort to try everything possible to avoid hitting civilians. - Eliezer Shakedi, head of Israel's air force. Thirteen Palestinian civilians have died in Israeli air strikes in the past week.
You would like to think that somebody whose public life was dominated by goodness would have a memorial. The memorial to Haughey in Dingle harbour is very appropriate. There is no reason why Dublin, the county he adopted as his own, wouldn't have a greater memorial. - Tom Brabazon, a Dublin Fianna Fáil councillor, who has suggested the city's new port tunnel be named after the former taoiseach.
The nuclear issue is just a pretext. If it was not the nuclear matter they would have come up with something else. - Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, says Washington is determined to topple the country's Islamic government regardless of whether the crisis over its nuclear strategy is resolved.
The French scored lowest and second lowest in every category, from . . . waiting time to smiling and greeting customers. We don't want these things to support our stereotypes but in a strange way they do. - Nigel Cover of Grass Roots, which has published a survey suggesting France has the surliest and least helpful shop assistants in Europe.
The danger I have is that if we start lecturing other countries in terms of what they should do, they could try to start lecturing us, on issues like abortion. - Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin says the Government will not block EU funding for embryonic stem cell research, in the face of opposition from Fianna Fáil MEPs and the Catholic Church.
I will never give up hope. I will never stop searching. - Thierry Lemmens, whose seven-year-old daughter vanished, along with her 10-year-old step-sister, in Liege a fortnight ago. Their disappearance has reawakened memories in Belgium of horrific child abuse cases of the past.
Those of us who have seen her campaign know she has the capacity to turn non-believers into believers. - US pollster John Zogby, after a CNN poll shows almost half of Americans could not vote for Hillary Clinton as president.
The first time I was in Iraq, I was on the streets with our soldiers in soft hats, no body armour. I don't think that could happen now. - Adam Ingram, British armed forces minister.
The entire world seems to believe they have a right to live in my country but it doesn't work the other way around. - US novelist Lionel Shriver on migration.
We have elected to take the risk. - Michael Griffin, Nasa administrator, says the space agency is to press ahead with a shuttle launch next month, despite the objections of its chief safety officer and top engineer, who have warned that a repeat of the Columbia tragedy is possible.
It's like having a war on dandruff, it's endless and pointless. - Writer Gore Vidal, dismissing President Bush's war on terror.