* “Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us.”–President Barack Obama, during the opening ceremony for the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum.
* “Ukraine is a middle power living next to a giant bear, and Vietnam is a middle power living next to a giant tiger. Ukraine is struggling with how to deal with a declining Russia that is looking for dignity in all the wrong places–like in Crimea–and Vietnam is struggling with how to deal with a rising China that is looking for oil in all the wrong places–like in Vietnam’s territorial waters.”–Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.
* “As Vladimir Putin is to Ukraine’s sovereignty so are Islamic militants to the rights of women everywhere.”–Ann McFeathers, McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
* “We must study if the current interpretation of the constitution is sufficient in order to protect the people and their peaceful lives. … There is a misunderstanding that Japan will return to a country that wages war, but that will never happen. Japan sticks to its pacifist pledge it has kept since the end of the war.”–Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
* “It is an important election because the trend in the counting shows that old ideas about caste, religion and region have not been relevant. … The youth across India have voted for change, and Modi represented that change.”–Indian author and political analyst Dipankar Gupta, on the election of Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalist and economic reformer, as India’s next prime minister.
* “An undesirable consequence of the (Supreme) Court’s partisan divide is that it becomes increasingly difficult to contend with a straight face that constitutional law is not simply politics by other means, and that justices are not merely politicians clad in fine robes.”–University of Texas law Professor Justin Driver.
* “I get most of my news, probably, driving back and forth to work, on the radio. Talk guys, usually.”–Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
* “In a true financial panic, the moral imperative is to ignore moral hazard and first put out the fire. This is counterintuitive. It feels deeply unfair.”–Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
* “If she has brain damage, I must be in really bad shape, because she’s still quicker than I am. There’s nothing to it.”–Former President Bill Clinton, defending Hillary Clinton after Republican strategist Karl Rove suggested she might have suffered a “traumatic brain injury” in 2012.
* “If Jeb’s last name was Brown instead of Bush, I think he would be the (Republican presidential) front-runner today.”–Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.
* “We’ve got more than 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for Medicare.”–President Barack Obama.
* “I think all science deserves skepticism.”–Sen. Marco Rubio.
* “The new heroin population is whiter. It’s not inner city; it’s suburbia.”–James Hall, a drug abuse epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University.
* “It’s silly, childish and frankly, rude. It’s galactically stupid.”–Former Gov. Charlie Crist, on the Florida Council of 100 withdrawing its invitation to speak at its spring meeting in Orlando.
* “This was not just an outlier–a rose amongst thorns. It’s starting to have the look of a trend of an accelerating jobs recovery.”–University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith, on the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity report that showed more jobs (34,000) created last month than any month in the past three years.
* “We’re excited about bringing more than 1,000 jobs and being part of the local community. We expect to find a great work force here.”–Amazon spokeswoman Nina Lindsey.
* “Local (non-chain) businesses bring more money into your community.” Maryann Ferenc, owner of Mise en Place restaurant and co-founder of the Tampa Independent Business Alliance.
* “Tampa International Airport is part of the Tampa Bay area, and we should be reflecting the Tampa Bay brand.”–TIA spokeswoman Janet Zink.
* “It’s good for the city; it’s part of my job to be involved in a big event in the city.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, on taking part in the St. Pete Pride festival.