Well qualified
"I don't know a thing about it." — Billionaire Ross Perot, latest entrant in the US presidential campaign, on the coming Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Instead of?
The European Community proposed by most European governments would lead to "insecurity, unemployment, national resentment and ethnic conflict". — Margaret Thatcher, who during her time as British prime minister presided over the poll tax revolt, record unemployment, a dramatic rise of the Scottish nationalist movement, the Brixton riots and the shoot-to-kill policy against republicans in the north of Ireland.
On a high
"It was not a party atmosphere. It was a laugh of relief ... to release the pressure. The officers had faced a stressful situation and they had prevailed. They were on a high." — Description of the situation after the beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King, from an unpublished book by police sergeant Stacy Koon, one of the four acquitted in the trial over King's beating.
Terrorists
"No-one will listen to you. These terrorists ... who are heckling us want to destroy our democracy. They want to shut the mouth of the prime minister." — Israeli leader Yitzhak Shamir, losing his cool with a group of young protesters during the current election campaign, in which his party appears to be heading for defeat.
The market
"This bloke comes up with 260 pieces and has the cheek to be chucking around a price tag of $6 million, knowing full well his father paid for them in tea, sugar, flour and tobacco." — An Aboriginal Central Land Council representative on an offer to sell it a collection of Aboriginal artefacts.
Politics?
"We don't do issues. This magazine is about tactics and strategies and techniques. It's about winning." — Scott Berkowitz, publisher of Campaigns and Elections, a widely read US magazine for "political professionals".
Cheated
"We expected 100% of the vote in some areas and got zero." — Millionaire former Marcos Crony Eduardo Cojuangco, complaining of corruption in the recent Philippines elections.
Altruism
"There were some real costs that just had to be paid. The whole process had a number of people looking at the budget and what the costs would be." — Dr Wayne Clarke, director of Sydney's St Vincent Hospital on the recent Concert for Life, supposed to raise funds for AIDS and heart research, but which returned only $350,000 above an outlay of $1.2 million after various sharks associated with the entertainment industry took their bite. The concert had been expected to raise about $1.5 million.
Disconnected
"We are ... employing over 5000 Australians. Everyone of whom will be trained to make you feel like you are the only person in the world with a telephone." — Advertisement by Optus, the new private competitor of Telecom.