* “I thought I was too ambitious, bordering on naiveté. But I saw that some of my colleagues were even more ambitious and wanted to do it faster.”–Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on fast-tracking nuclear negotiations.
* “It’s theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death. … The convention afterlife is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.”–Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.
* “I don’t think what Washington needs is more compromise.”–Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx.
* “It’s revealing irony that the harshest critics of compromise should call themselves constitutional conservatives. The Constitution itself resulted from an extraordinary series of compromises. And it created the system of government that presupposes the same spirit.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.
* “The Republican Party has just spun itself up around this issue. And the fact is the Republicans’ biggest fear at this point is not that the Affordable Care Act will fail. What they’re worried about is it’s going to succeed. … All this would be funny if it wasn’t so crazy.”–President Barack Obama.
* “The entire world looks to us to make sure that the world economy is stable. You don’t mess with that.”–President Barack Obama.
* “I believe this is something the American people have a right to know, whether NSA has ever collected or made plans to collect cell site information.”–Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., addressing NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
* “What I don’t want to do … is put out in an unclassified forum anything that’s classified.”–Gen. Keith Alexander’s response to Sen. Wyden.
* “It’s very hard to write regulations that will keep people from acting foolishly, particularly when acting foolishly has proven very profitable over the preceding few years.”–Warren Buffett.
* “You never say never in this business because you don’t know. I still have plenty of fire. What is it going to be directed at is the question.”–Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate, on whether he would consider another White House run in 2016.
* “He’s captured the world’s imagination. Like Jesus, he’s always saying, ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner.'”–Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, describing Pope Francis.
* “After standing by him, he kind of left and I guess kind of went on a victory tour without me.”–Shellie Zimmerman, estranged wife of George Zimmerman.
* “Baseball is what I do, not who I am, and that’s the difference.”–Recently retired New York Yankee great Mariano Rivera.
* “We can talk all we want, and that doesn’t make the mayor–whoever that may be–listen.”–Tampa City Council member Mary Mulhern.
* “This was a hotly contested sale. There was a lot of interest in it, and this became very competitive. That’s good news for us that a lot of smart people thought the site has potential that has not been realized.”–David Conn, executive vice president of the real estate services company CBRE, on the sale of Hyde Park Village to WS Development for $45 million.
* “It’s not gangbusters yet, but it’s getting there. It’s good, but it’s still not where it was in 2006.”–Tampa’s Robert Elder, president of the Elder Automotive Group, which owns Ford and Jaguar dealerships.
* We truly expect it to be a celebration of college football, the crown jewel.”–Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, on the motivation for pitching Tampa as host for college football’s national championship game.