This week they said

We will leave this square when Mubarak leaves Egypt. – Protester in Cairo’s Tahrir Square

We will leave this square when Mubarak leaves Egypt. – Protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square

You have taken back your rights and what we have begun cannot go back. – Opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei encourages the protesters

This is my country. This is where I lived, I fought and defended its land, sovereignty and interests and I will die on its soil. – Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak signals he has no intention of going anywhere

I feel that . . . it would be best for me to step back from politics and give others now the opportunity. – Retiring Fianna Fáil TD for Laois-Offaly and outgoing Taoiseach Brian Cowen shows Mubarak how it's done

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He has given a high example in public service and he is a politician who has been motivated by the common good. – Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin pays tribute to his predecessor

No country has ever taxed its way to economic recovery. – Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny promises to keep taxes low

Nobody, and especially ourselves, should ever doubt what we are capable of. – Labour leader Eamon Gilmore in praise of the electorate

Balotelli's busty beauty badgered by Berlusconi at bunga bonkathon. – The Sun's foreign desk perspective on current events in Italy

My wife, daughter and I much prefer to drink white wine, but I've greatly enjoyed collecting all sorts of varieties, and vintages, from all over the world. – Singer Chris de Burgh on selling some of the reds in his cellar

I will not participate on any programme that Vincent Browne has anything to do with. – Enda Kenny

I love Vincent Browne. – Micheál Martin

If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women. There were points in my life where I felt oddly irresistible to women. I'm not in that state now and that makes me sad . . . I would love that one last real romance. But Im not very realistic about it happening. – Actor Jack Nicholson (74) grows up