* “We must not lose the support of the United States. What gives Israel bargaining power in the international arena is the support of the United States. Even if the Americans do not take part in the negotiations, they are present at them. If Israel were to stand alone, its enemies would swallow it up.”–Israeli President Shimon Peres.
* “Fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges.”–President Barack Obama.
* “There’s this tendency to freeze Dr. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where he delivered the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. But King’s concern, his activism, went well beyond this call for integration to build and focus on this issue on economic justice and the issue of international peace.”–Lewis V. Baldwin, author and professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University.
* “If Bill Clinton found his voice after the Oklahoma City bombing, Barack Obama found his after the Newtown shootings.”–Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg View.
* “In modern history this could be the first congressionally induced recession.”–Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments, conjecturing that if Congress can’t come to an agreement over sequestration, government spending will drop and the economy will contract.
* “President Obama’s frustration with our republic and the way it works doesn’t give him license to ignore the Constitution…As a strong defender of the 2nd Amendment, I will oppose the president’s attempts to undermine Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.”–Sen. Marco Rubio.
* “Some things are above politics.”–New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
* “Patients should demand that their health care provider gets flu shots–and they should ask them.”–Medical ethicist Art Caplan.
* “I’m not the most believable guy in the world right now.”–Lance Armstrong.
* “These Te’o jokes are all very funny, but let’s all try and remember that a person who never existed is dead.”–Seth Myers, Saturday Night Live.
* “Your record of appointments to the judiciary is appalling to us.”–Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, in assailing Gov. Rick Scott for appointing so few (6 out of 91) African-Americans to judgeships.
* “My job is to be an economic developer.”–Paul Anderson, the new CEO of the Tampa Port Authority.
* “It’s very important in today’s economics that stadiums be located as close to a business district as possible–particularly baseball, that can play six or seven games a week.”–Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist.
* “Just to take that amount of law enforcement personnel and assign them to those schools because of what happened in Connecticut–I don’t think it’s prudent. I don’t think it’s necessary. I just don’t think it’s going to accomplish anything other than create a ‘feel-good’ situation.”–Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
* “I think this is a great example of urban design. It’s almost like maybe we’re finally getting there.”–City Council member Mary Mulhern, commenting on council’s unanimous vote to sell about 1 acre of city land to developers planning to build a 36-story apartment tower on the Hillsborough River.
* “These fans have been terrific over the years. I get so angry at people up North, the snobs, who talk about hockey in Florida. This is just as good as any market in hockey.”–Phil Esposito.