Verbatim

'This is our first Goldilocks planet--just the right size and the right distance from its sun.'

PAUL BUTLER, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, referring to Gliese 581g, a newly detected planet about 20 light years away from Earth that could support life

'I am sitting here as a suspect because I have spoken ... nothing but the truth.'

GEERT WILDERS, outspoken Dutch parliamentarian, who is on trial in Amsterdam for allegedly inciting hatred against Muslims by comparing the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

'We'd like to spread the culture of fun--and safety.'

CANDICE IYOG, vice president for marketing of the Philippine airline Cebu Pacific, on its in-flight safety demonstrations, during which flight attendants dance to Lady Gaga in order to keep passengers' attention; the demonstrations are a YouTube hit

'I hope you all will donate a euro to Jérôme Kerviel.'

OLIVIER METZNER, lawyer for the French banker sentenced to three years in prison and fined $6.7 billion (4.9 billion euros) in damages for perpetrating one of the world's biggest trading frauds as an employee of Société Générale

'It is the right of any country to promote its own interests.'

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, former Pakistani President, admitting that his country trained militants to fight India in Kashmir because India would not address the issue of the disputed region

'I passed the ball, and suddenly I got hit, and not for the first time.'

EVO MORALES, Bolivian President, justifying himself after he was caught on camera kicking an opponent in the groin during a friendly match to inaugurate a renovated stadium in La Paz

'The nations that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.'

JILL BIDEN, U.S. Second Lady and a community-college professor, at a White House summit explaining the critical role such colleges play in meeting the nation's job-training needs

TALKING HEADS

Reihan Salam

Comparing the House minority leader with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the Daily Beast:

"John Boehner has outmaneuvered her at almost every step since the passage of the new health law. Instead of celebrating the health law as a major progressive victory, Democratic incumbents are skirting the issue, hoping it won't cost them their jobs. And in the last weeks before the midterms, Boehner forced Democrats into a tax fight they can't win. One gets the impression that he has been misunderestimated."

--10/1/10

Mosharraf Zaidi

Discussing Bob Woodward's new book, in Foreign Policy:

"Pakistanis will not come away from reading Obama's Wars with any confidence in the warm sincerity of Hillary Clinton's multiple visits to the country ... No U.S. Administration has ever invested so much effort and time in trying to understand and accommodate Pakistan's complex realities ... Woodward's book confirms what this outpouring of U.S. interest and attention is all about: it is about fear."