Verbatim

"In the eyes of the rest of the world, U.S. commitment tends to ebb much more than it flows." MARK MALLOCH BROWN, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General, criticizing U.S. attitudes on multilateralism and the U.N.

"Fundamentally, very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people by an international civil servant--and it's just illegitimate." JOHN BOLTON, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in response to Malloch Brown. Bolton also called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to repudiate his deputy, which Annan declined to do

"Until we get the Islamic state, we will continue with the Islamic struggle in Somalia." SHEIKH SHARIF AHMED, chairman of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union, after Islamic militias overcame U.S.-backed warlords and seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, last week

"When I signed up, I never thought I would go to war. I mean, you never really think of Alaska being at war with anybody." HAROLD AZEAN, National Guard specialist from western Alaska, where Guard units are being deployed overseas--to Iraq--for the first time since World War II

"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much." ANN COULTER, conservative commentator, criticizing a high-profile group of New Jersey widows whose husbands died in the 9/11 attacks in her new book Godless: the Church of Liberalism

"Perhaps her book should have been called Heartless." HILLARY CLINTON, Democratic Senator from New York, in response to Coulter

"Juan Adams y su hijo Juan Q." GEORGE W. BUSH, to immigrants in Nebraska preparing for a citizenship exam, explaining in Spanish that another father-son pair of Presidents preceded his dad and him: John Adams and his son John Q.

"I'm a procrastinator." BETTY MCNEIL, 82, the oldest member of Harvard's Class of 2006, on why it took her seven years to get her bachelor's degree in liberal arts

For more daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes

Sources: BBC; Washington Post; New York Times; Los Angeles Times; AP (2); Chicago Tribune; WCVB-TV