- N -
- My ambition is to do a good job. I never plan anything.
Ilie Nastase, former professional tennis player, running for mayor of Bucharest, Romania, 1996
- This is the only place in the world where you can do this. The little guy who dosen't
have a lot of money can still come here and start up a campain. We give the same courtesy
to the Hemp Lady as to Bob Dole.
New Hampshire Secretary of State, where anyone with $1,000 can enter the Presidential
Primary Election, 1995
- There'll never be another ewe? Don't count on it!
News Headline, after Scottish scientists clone a sheep, 1997
- My generation, faced as it grew with a choice between religious belief and existential despair, chose
marijuana. Now we are in our Cabernet stage.
Peggy Noonan, speech writer for presidents Reagan and Bush, 1996
- U.S. Government Standard Bathroom Malodor.
name of one of several"Non-lethal" crowd dispersal agents, being developed for U.S. law enforcement/military applications, as reported in Time, July 2002
- I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to run around like Dennis Rodman and head-butt somebody.
Greg Norman, Australian professional golfer, after losing the Masters tournament, 1996
- I'm like John Wayne. I only play good guys.
Oliver North, retired US marine colonel, describing his cameo role on a TV series, 1995
- The west wasn't won on salad.
(North Dakota Beef Council), billboard advertisement, 1990
- In America, unfortunately, we regulate by tombstones.
NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) Official, on the lack of regulations requiring automatic safety
devices, after a fatal los angeles train crash was attributed to operator error, 15Sep2008 in the Sun-Sentinel
- O -
- I'd rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre two-term President.
Barrack Obama, US President, on the political cost of championing health-care reform, 2010
If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands. And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing.
Barrack Obama, US President, in the Independent, 2015
- I think out third child is this campaign.
Michelle Obama, wife of presidential nominee Barack Obama, when asked if she were considering having another child, 22Sept08, in Time
- My kids are sane.
Michelle Obama, US First Lady, when asked what she is most proud of after one year in the White House, 2010
- I think she did good.
Sasha Obama, age 7, on her mother Michelle Obama's speech before the Democratic National Convention, 26Aug2008
- Twenty-two years of tofu is a lot of time.
Paul Obis, creator of Vegetarian Times, on his decision to start eating meat, 1997
- I regret calling my wife 'huge'. What I meant to say was that there are specific areas of my wife that are larger than normal and growing every day. All other portions of my wife are quite petite. I apologize and will be coming home with flowers.
Jerry O'Connel, regarding his pregnant wife, model/actress Rebecca Romijn, 14Sep2008 in Time
- P -
- There's always someone younger and prettier.
Gwyneth Paltrow, American Actress, age 35, on the limits to stardom in the movie business, 2008
- There's some trophy value to having artists of this magnitude.
Don Passmani, lawyer for Janet Jackson, after his client signed an
$80 million contract with Virgin Records, 1996
- By day I'm a film star, by night my mum nags me to tidy my room.
Dev Patel, Indian Film Actor who gained fame for "Slumdog Millionaire", 2009
- If elected, I will win.
Pat Paulsen, US comedian, commenting on his fifth, and final, presidential campaign, 1996
- You don't need any brains to listen to music.
Luciano Pavarotti, opera singer, 1994
- I've been subjected -- I think that's the word -- to that music for years by my children.
I.M. Pei, architect for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, on Rock
and Roll, 1995
- It feels absolutely fantastic being back on dry land.
Michael Perham , British Sailor, Age 14, youngest person to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, 7January2007
- She probably got mad at me for not sending her a card thanking her for the gift.
Kenneth F. Perkins, of Lebanon, Indianna, on receiving a package postmarked December 13th, 1945, from a woman he was then dating, found when the Indianapolis court house was renovated, August 2002
- One reason we’re in this situation is this is a supersize society — we tend to equate small with insignificant,” Berenbaum said. “I’m sorry but that’s not true in biology. You have to be small to get into the flower and deliver the pollen. Without that critical act, there’s no fruit. And no technology has been invented that equals, much less surpasses, insect pollinators. It’s not the staples, If you can imagine eating a bowl of oatmeal every day with no fruit on it, that’s what it would be like.
Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service on the sudden dissappearance of large numbers of the honeybees used to pollinate fruit and nut crops, Reuters, April 2007
- Large numbers of Americans are not well informed about the tenets, practices, history and leading figures of major faith traditions - including their own.
Pew Research Center Report, which found, among other things, that atheists and agnostics knew more about Christianity than most Christians in the U.S., 27Sept2010
- Is that your final answer?
Regis Philbin, game show host, 2000
- When you're 25, you can eat hamburgers and pizza and drink beer and stay out all night and come out the next day and drink a couple cups of coffee and just play. If I did that today, my heart would stop and I'd need a stretcher and an IV.
Mike Piazza, 27 year old catcher for the New York Mets, NYT Online Edition, Nov 5th, 2005
- Some employees may prefer weapons such as chain saws, baseball bats and explosives that have been shown to be effective against zombies.
Plan, found on the University of Florida disaster preparedness web site, 2009
- Musically, we are more talented than any Bob Dylan. Musically, we
are more talented than Paul McCartney...I'm the new Elvis.
Robert Pilatus, "singer" in the musical group Milli Vanilli,
1990
- I respect everyone. I even respect journalists.
Alexander "the Russian Rocket" Popov, double-gold medallist in swimming, responding politely to inane comments by an NBC interviewer, Atlanta Olympics, 1996.
- We have found an environment that is potentially suitable for living organisms.
Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute, discussing a moon of Saturn, NYT Online Edition, March 9th, 2006
- I don't want to describe the hate mail we've gotten.
Alma Powell, Colin's wife, on why she was fearful of her husband running for president - from an interview in the Ladies Home Journal, 1996
- Think hard about it: I'm running out of demons. I'm running out of villians. I'm down to Castro and Kim Il Sung.
Colin Powell, US general and chairman of joint chiefs of staff, 1991
- Don't hold your breath.
Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister, when asked if he had any retirement plans, 2009
- Q -
- Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in
the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.
Dan Quayle, IN senator and US vice president, during a speech
in Hawaii, 1989
- What a waste it is to lose one's mind--or not to have a mind. How
true that is.
Dan Quayle, IN senator and US vice president, 1989
- I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton.
Dan Quayle, former US Vice President, on elections in the year 2000 (when Clinton would not be eligible to run), 1998.
- If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speech.'
Robin Quivers, co-host of the Howard Stern radio show, 1996
- R -
- Enough of blood and tears. Enough!
Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, 1994
- Nature taught us so many lessons last year.
Benito Ramos, Manila civil preparedness official, on the purchase of 160 rescue boats one one year after Tropical Storm Ketsana killed hundreds and left over 100,000 homeless, 24Sept2010
- What I say or do here won't matter much, nor should it.
Dan Rather,journalist, University of Texas, Austin
Graduation, 1995
- I'll trust you to make sure that doesn't happen.
Dan Rather,journalist, to the pilot of a deep sea submersible, upon finding out what would happen
if the craft sprung a leak while submerged, 1996
- While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
Ronald Reagan,US president, 1992
- I know I'm not in government anymore. In fact I'm out of work.
Ronald Reagan,US president, on a speaking tour of Japan, 1989
- I don't want to seem braggadocious, but people keep telling me it's the most
famous house in the country, after the White House.
Victor Recchia, whose New jesrsey home was used as the setting for The Sopranos
television series, August 2002, in the NY Times
- Well, does he still have his fingernails?
Bill Richardson, US Congressman, and nominee for UN Representative, making inquiries while negotiating the release of a US Army pilot from North Korea, in Time, 1996.
- I heard a snap and I started spinning and I didn't know why. I didn't know what to do to fix it. I didn't know how to make it stop. At the end I said, 'I'm going to die. I'm going to hit the ground. I'm going to die. I don't remember hitting the ground. I don't remember the impact or anything that came with it. I went into the first surgery where they cut me from ear to ear and they cut my face down and they took out all the fractured egg-shelled bones and put in steel plates.
Shayna Richardson, Skydiver from Joplin Missouri, on the effects of surviving a 50 MPH skydiving impact with a parking lot, December 13th, 2005
- During the blizzard we had three feet of snow - and the pigs are only 18
inches tall. We had to dig tunnels so they could get out.
Dale Riffle, who, along with Jim Brewer, maintains a haven for unwanted
Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pigs in West Virginia, 1996
- Less and grayer hair.
Cal Ripkin Jr.,baseball player, describing how he has changed
over the course of his consecutive games record, 1996
- You are the weakest link. Goodbye.
Anne Robinson, game show host, 2001
- I'm not a mood songwriter. I don't have to be happy to write a happy song. I write what I'm inspired to write at that time. I'm a life observer and I'm a people watcher, and so I just see things that happen and I write about them.
Smokey Robinson, American Singer and Songwriter, 2009
- Losing him is like losing 12 people because he absolutely filled up any room he was in.
Chris Rock, American Commedian, on the death of fellow commedian and actor Bernie Mac, 11Aug2008
- Excellent black people have always been compensated for excellence. Always. The real equality is when we can have a black president as dumb as George Bush. That's when we're really equal. That's when the dream has come true.
Chris Rock, American Commedian, on the Inauguration of Barak Obama, January 2009
- I've never looked forward to a birthday like I'm looking forward to
my new daughter's birthday, because two days
after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.
Pete Rose, baseball player, manager and prison inmate, 1989
- Imagine what Disney could do with this material. There could be a parade...
with at least one real prince and one real princess on hand.
John Rothchild, news commentator, proposing a sale of Windsor
Castle to Disney to improve the royal family's public image, 1996
- We don't see eye to eye, but we have a common interest: your money.
Johnny Rotten, stage name of Johnny Lydon, announcing the rationale for a reunion tour of the Sex Pistols, 1996
- It's funny. Now they get it. I guess it's not the music for the overpriveliged.
Johnny Rotten, stage name of Johnny Lydon, punk musician, during a PBS retrospective, 1995
- Reports that say something hasn’t happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns — there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns — that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, in a Press Briefing on the War in Iraq, December 1st, 2003
- Sometimes I think that when people become famous, there's a public perception that they are not human beings any more.
Salmon Rushdie, Author, 2008
- Believe me when I say that Bill Clinton's second term will be good for business. My business.
Mark Russell, Political satirist, composer, performer, Nov 6 1996
- S -
- We are kind of shocked they didn't beat us.
Ahmad Salah, Egyptian Protestor, after police allowed chanting of anti-government slogans on election day, Septermber 8th, 2005
- This is a world of hypocrisy and false values, a world that needs love but does not know how to find it. The people who use the word love are all phonies.
J.D. Salinger, Reclusive Author, in a letter, 2010
- You can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it.
Cha Sa-Soon, on passing her written driver's exam on the 950th try, at age 68, in Korea, 2009
- They ought to put it back in the ground.
Scientist, on the discovery of a nearly complete early hominid skull in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, which does not fit into any current evolutionary theory. August 2002
- Delighted visitors are sucking up the asphalt smoke.
Scientist, observing visitors to an eruption of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii, as hot lava set the road on fire, July 2002
- Parents like the idea of kids, they just don't like their kids.
Morley Saefer, Journalist, on Politically Incorrect, 1995
- Kids' views are often just as valid as the teachers'. The best teachers are the ones that know that.
Morley Saefer, Journalist, on Politically Incorrect, 1995
- This one could be him,or this one, or this. The truth is, they are all my father. That is how I feel.
Juliana Sanchez, Age 77, searching for her father's remains in a mass grave near Malaga, Spain, from the Spanish Civil War, 70 years ago, Associated Press Article, Oct 28th, 2007.
- How do you function as a lawyer when the law is what the general says it is?
Babar Sattar, Lawyer, protesting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in Islamabad, 07November2007
- There are few things more personal than eating, and if you reject someone's food, you kind of reject them.
Walter Scheib, former White House Chef, on campaign advice for U.S. presidential candidates, NYT Online Edition, 23November2007
- Some companies seem to figure no one is watching, so they can get away with it.
Stephen Schondelmeyer, of the University of Minnesota, on price increases of 100% to 1000% by drug manufacturers, 08Aug2008
- Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.
Don Schula, Miami Dolphins Football Coach, describing an opposing team, 1994
- He is neither a strategist nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general. Other than that he's a great military man.
Norman Schwartzkopf, US general and gulf war commander, describing Saddam Hussein of Iraq, 1991
- I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend, but with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me.
Arnold Schwarzenegger,, Actor and California Governor, on Arizona's restrictive Immigrant law, at Emory University, 2010
- I love doing sequels.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Actor, on being re-elected governor of California, 13November2006
- Many women who do not dress modesty. They lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, Iranian Cleric with a tenuous grip on cause-and-effect, Tehran, 2010
- Blood, sweat, tears, smoke and mirrors.
Bill Shalen, Researcher, on the process of balancing California's $19 billion budget deficit, 2010
- Of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest
J. D. Shapiro, Screenwriter for Battlefield Earth, voted the worst movie of the decade, 2010
- In Japan, we don't have family doctors. People choose a doctor according to the organ they think they have a problem with. But no one wants to think they have a mental problem, and most doctors say they just don't know anything about that
area.
Noritoshi Shinkai, Japanese psychiatrist, on lack of treatment for depression,
August 2002, in the NY Times
- It has no fear.
Yasser Sierawan, chess grand master, describing one competitive advantage of IBM's Deep Blue
chess computer, 1996
- Juliet's so happy and in love, but at the same time so sad and lonely. She's totally neurotic. I could really relate.
Alicia Silverstone, Actress, on Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet, 1995
- It's a question of marketing toilets as a status symbol. I want people to aspire to owning a toilet.
Jack Sim, founder of the WTO (World Toilet Organization), on the need for improved sanitation in developing countries, 23Sept2008, on NPR
- It was cool, man, but I'm a little depressed they didn't have a buffet.
Tony Siragusa, 300+ pound football player for the Baltimore Ravens, on a visit to the White House, 2001
- The sums are appalling.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, noting the $18 Billion African nations spend on weapons and conflict, 15October2007
- We just took the necessities. The good stuff - the television and the furniture - you just have to hope something's there when you get back. If it's not, you just start over.
Michael Skipper, New Orleans Resident, awaiting landfall of Hurricane Katrina, August 28th, 2005
- It looked like the fall of the Roman Empire.
Ted Soqui, photographer, describing parts of LA after the Northridge Earthquake, 1994
- Daddy, the plane turned into a boat.
Martin Sosa, New York resident, relating what his four-year old daughter said when their US Airways flight made an emergency landing on the Hudson River, TIME online edition, 2009
- We have a sock talking at our commencement. It's kind of upsetting.
Southampton College student, commenting on a commencement address by Kermit the Frog, 1996.
- They get so jacked up worrying that it will hurt. Maybe that's why women have babies and we don't.
Mark Spitz, Multiple Gold-MedalWinning Olympic swimmer and Botox spokesman, on more men getting facial injections to hide ageing, January 2009, in Time.
- Peace is an accident, war is natural. Old men start it, young men fight it, everybody in the middle dies, and nobody tells the truth.
Sylvester Stallone, American Actor, on the most recent film in his Rambo series, 20November2007
- Now the only thing standing between you and a degree is, well, me. And 18 minutes.
S. Frederic Star, author, at Wooster College Graduation, 1995
- At my graduation, I thought we had to marry what we wished to become. Now you are becoming the men you once would have wished to marry.
Gloria Steinem, author and activist, Smith College Graduation, 1995
- These are hard times, not end times,
John Stewart, Host of the Daily Show, at the "Rally to Restore Sanity, Washington D.C., 30th October 2010
- I catnap now and then, but I think while I nap, so it's not a waste of time.
Martha Stewart, ever-active home/garden/craft author and TV show personality, 1996.
- It is what you do from now on that will either move our civilization
forward a few tiny steps, or
else...begin to march us steadily backward.
Patrick Stewart, actor and star fleet captain, at Pomona College Graduation, 1995
- Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?
Clifford Stoll, unix sysop, hacker stalker, and author, 1995
- You open Kerri's closet and all the short-sleeved shirts are with the short-sleeved shirts, and the long-sleeved shirts are with the long-sleeved shirts. Her room is always neat; the bed is always made.
Melanie Strug, on her daughter's perfectionist habits (in addition to gymnastics), 1996
- In regards to a 16-year-old going on this trip, if you take the age factor out of it, you're either good enough to go on that trip or you're not. Abigail's proved herself and her ability over and beyond most people that are out there on the ocean doing similar things.
Laurence Sunderland, father of Abagail Sunderland, fielding criticism for allowing his daughter to sail solo around the world, after her boat ws damaged by a storm, June 2010
- No one gets out of it without hitting a bit of a rough patch.
Zack SunderlandAmerican Sailor, and younget person to sail solo around the world at 17, on his sister Abigail's crossing the Indian Ocean, June 2010
- Banks need a good kick up the bum occasionally.
Wayne Swan, Australian Finance Minister, 1909
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