* “(Earth) now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.”–Pope Francis.
* “Every country has violent, hateful or mentally unstable people. What’s different is not every country is awash with easily accessible guns. At some point as a country we have to reckon with what happens. It is not good enough simply to show sympathy.”–President Barack Obama.
* “You know the great thing about the state of Iowa is, I’m pretty sure you all define gun control the same way we do in Texas–hitting what you aim at. … There’s a famous saying, ‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.’ There’s a reason why the Second Amendment is right after the First.”–Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
* “Forgiveness will come, but for me it will not be today. I could forgive my sister’s death if it was an accident. … . What happened to my sister was premeditated. It was calculated. It was hate.”–Former North Carolina state legislator Malcolm Graham, whose sister was among the nine victims of Charleston shooter Dylann Roof.
* “In reality, the opposition to the (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade pact is part of a long tradition of populist reaction. When economic stress rises, there is a strong temptation to pull inward. The Republican tea partiers are suspicious of all global diplomatic arrangements. The Democratic version of the tea partiers are suspicious of all global economic arrangements.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “He would be a very big annoyance to establishment Republicans. He’ll say things they won’t say, and he’ll take people on they won’t take on.”–Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, on the impact of Donald Trump.
* “They (politicians) give a speech and if anyone boos, they change their speech. They’re living, breathing polls, and that’s the way it should be.”–“Supply-side” economist Arthur Laffer.
* “The problem with politicians is that they hire economists who instantly become politicians.”–Laurence Kotlikoff, Boston University economics professor who ran for president as a third-party candidate in 2012.
* “Both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have relationships and history they will have to overcome. He has to make his own case for his background and ideas, but she has a more complex challenge, namely explaining and differing from the sitting administration that she was part of.”–GOP strategist Tony Frito, who is backing Bush.
* “A significant amount of Florida’s economic and job growth in the (Jeb) Bush era was driven by a massive run-up in housing prices–which peaked in Bush’s last year in office, then plunged the state into a worse recession than the nation as a whole.”–Jim Tankersley, Washington Post.
* “So let me lay it out on the table for you. You’re living in a country today which has more wealth and income inequality than any major industrialized nation on Earth.”–Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
* “My position on how to address the Confederate flag is clear. In Florida we acted (2001), moving the flag from the state grounds to a museum where it belonged.”–Jeb Bush.
* “Donald Trump’s policy agenda is too skeletal or absurd to analyze. He will pick better generals to defeat the Islamic State. He will slap a 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods. He will build a wall across the continent and make Mexico pay for it.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.
* “That’s like saying, ‘Would you rather have a migraine or throw up?'”–Cher, when asked to choose between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
* “Prisons are only as strong as the people who work in them. We have scattered our maximum-security facilities in remote hamlets where economic security outside the walls is at a minimum. Wages are low and prospects are few when a jail is the only game in town. This is a recipe for failure–and when the (Clinton Correctional Facility) manhunt is over, Americans might want to think about it.”–David Von Drehle, Time magazine.
* “The most irresistible water cooler story of the year. This will be on ‘Blackish’ next season; just wait and see.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald, on Rachel Dolezal’s black-identity saga.
* “In terms of mop-up duty, I think NBC has done a very deft job. Get him (Brian Williams) back in front of an audience and let’s see how the audience reacts.”–Jonathan Klein, former president of CNN/U.S.
* “Reservations-making without commitment is the apotheosis of digital glibness.”–Henry Alford, author of “Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That? A Modern Guide to Manners.”
* “The environmental part of the (Legislative) session wasn’t a bang–it was a whimper. It started out with big expectations and didn’t produce.”–Eric Draper, executive director of the Florida Audubon Society.
* “The divorce of planning for economic development and planning for infrastructure is one of the reasons we are where we are with transportation.”–Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill in a recent presentation to the county’s Transportation Policy Leadership Group.
* “Part of our challenge is that we don’t have a dedicated fund source that is enough to support all the projects we have.”–Jean Duncan, Tampa’s Transportation and Stormwater Services director.
* “There’s nothing going on, I don’t expect anything to be going on, but the clock be ticking.”–Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg.
* “Freezing redevelopment at the edge of the Trop site is shortsighted. You cannot overstate how hard it is or how long it might take to restart development after a decade.”–Karl Nurse, St. Petersburg City Council member, on the “high price of doing nothing” about the Rays’ Tropicana Field-lease.