“Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States. And I promised him that I wouldn’t call him back this time.” Al Gore, in his concession speech
Front-page headline on the British tabloid The Mirror, which ran a picture of the globe with an arrow pointing to Britain
“We can see from the elections that we are the true democracy and not this ridiculous American model.” Libya’s U.N. ambassador, Abuzed Omar Dorda, on America’s election woes
“If we say somebody’s carried the state, you can take that to the bank. Book it!” CBS anchor Dan Rather, on election night before Florida was taken away from Gore
“We don’t just have egg on our face – we have an omelet all over our suits.” Tom Brokaw, NBC’s anchor, after prematurely calling Florida – twice
“The American people have spoken, but it’s going to take a little while to determine what they said.” Bill Clinton, on the election uncertainty
Republican vice presidential candidateon the angioplasty he underwent after a minor heart attack
DON’T BLAME ME. I THINK I VOTED FORE GORE. A new bumper sticker popping up in Florida
“Only Al Gore can beat Al Gore. And he’s been doing a pretty good job of that.” Ralph Nader, responding to critics who were predicting he could cost Gore the race
“He’s probably the least qualified person ever to be nominated by a major party. What is his accomplishment? That he’s no longer an obnoxious drunk?” Ron Reagan, son of the former president and a Ralph Nader supporter, on Bush
“I may not have been the greatest president, but I’ve had the most fun eight years.” President Bill Clinton, enjoying his final months in office
“I think historians will look at Bill Clinton with puzzlement and make the following judgment: that it was a great waste.” Sen. John McCain, in an interview with Esquire magazine
“So little time, so many unanswered questions. For example, over the last few months I’ve lost 10 pounds. Where did they go? Why haven’t I produced them to the independent counsel?” Bill Clinton, spoofing his last months in office as a lame-duck leader during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
“Evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct.” Independent counsel Robert Ray, in closing the six-year, $52 million Whitewater investigation
“I just couldn’t resist.” Bill Clinton, on stopping at McDonald’s for a crispy chicken and fries during a postconvention campaign visit to Michigan
“Sixty-two counties, 16 months, three debates, two opponents and six black pantsuits later, because of you, we are here.” Hillary Rodham Clinton, addressing supporters after being elected senator from New York
THE WORLDan Israeli Army spokesman, on the violence that erupted after Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount
“We are trying our best to get our people to stop shooting from Area A.” Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, calling an end to targeting Israelis in areas under complete Palestinian control
“Does this mean that there is permission to continue shooting from other areas? Israeli Gen. Giorta Elland, responding to Arafat’s announcement
“You know when birds fly out of a cage? That’s how we feel.” Hizbullah officer Abu Jaffa on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon
“I am writing blind…There are 23 people here… none of us can escape.” A note found in the pocket of Lt. Capt. Dmitry Kolesnikov after his body was recovered from the Russian submarine Kursk
U.S. Sen.on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military campaign against Chechnya
“I was living for this day. I was prepared to give everything, to give my life, to see Milosevic go.” Jovice Miric, an auto mechanic who stormed the Yugoslavian Parliament building to oust President Slobodan Milosevic
Victoriousafter defeating Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia’s presidential contest
“I want to ask you for forgiveness because many of our hopes have not come true.” Russian President Boris Yeltsin, announcing his resignation and naming Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, as his successor – six months before the end of his term
“Europe can do without Austria.” Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, after Austria allowed nationalist right-wing politician Jorg Haider’s Freedom Party into its government. The European Union temporarily imposed sanctions on the country aimed at isolating it diplomatically.
“If we can eradicate smallpox, put men on the moon and decipher the human genome, surely we can learn to stop killing each other.” Stephen Smith, cofounder of the Genocide Prevention Research Initiative, which convenes academics from around the globe in an effort to put an end to genocide
“I will govern with no personality cult and without the assumption that the country is my fiefdom.” Mexico’s newly inaugurated President Vicente Fox after defeating the long-ruling PRI
“Chinese people fighting Chinese people? That really should be in the past. Let’s start living well. Everybody should get rich.” Chinese businessman Sun Xiaolian, who has made a fortune trading with Taiwan, on his country’s policy toward Taiwan
“Leave me alone.” Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez, lashing out at supporters outside his home after an emotional reunion with his grandmothers
“I expect for the first time in four months to hug my son.” Juan Miguel Gonzalez, father of Elian, upon his arrival in Washington, D.C.
“This may seem very scary. It will soon be better.” A female immigration agent to Elian Gonzalez, as she carried him from the house
Former South African presidentspeaking out on the disease that is devastating his nation
“God, where were you in Paris?” Bishop Josef Homeyer, at a memorial service for the 96 Germans who died when an Air France Concorde jet bound for New York crashed just outside Paris
“If he died quickly, it would be too good for him.” Maria Ema Kasam, a resident of Freetown, Sierra Leone, after the capture of rebel leader Foday Sankoh
“People need rice, not an airplane.” Indonesian M.P. Abdullah Zainie, on President Abdurrahman Wahid’s proposal to purchase his own version of the U.S. presidential jet Air Force One
“Please give me your e-mail address.” Formerly reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
“The next few days, I’m going fishing.” Nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, on his release after being held in prison without bail for nine months
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGYsenior foreign economist at Brown Brothers Harriman, on the euro’s decline in value to less than $1
“Microsoft as it is presently organized and led is unwilling to accept the notion that it broke the law.” Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, in his decision to split Microsoft into two companies
“I did it with as much excitement as I felt the first time I made love some 42 years ago.” Time Warner vice chairman Ted Turner, conveying the climactic feeling of sealing a $165 billion megadeal with AOL
“Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God! Agghhhhhh!” Julia Pickar, who left an Internet company to start her own, as she watched the Nasdaq signboard in Times Square
“I feel this indescribable joy when I hear one of these companies has run out of money.” Richard Marquez, a San Francisco social worker, on the once hot and now cold dot-com market
Mayorof Hirata, Japan, explaining the reasoning behind his bid to make every Friday a computer-free day in his town’s government offices
“That day was the scariest day of my life … all of a sudden I heard this awful noise and what I thought was a blowout. I thought I was going to flip into the ditch …I know I didn’t run over anything …the tread peeled off my tire.” Motorist Henry Schroeder, in a 1998 written complaint to Bridgestone/Firestone about the company’s ATX tires
A headline in Argentina’s El Cronista newspaper, after an interest-rate hike by the U.S. Fed chairman
“The recipe to our family’s carrot cake is probably more secure than this country’s nuclear secrets.” U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, voicing widespread concern about security breaches within the Los Alamos lab’s X Division
“People who can’t switch off from the world for just two hours deserve our pity.” Luis Yabiko, sponsor of a new law in Campinas, Brazil, under which mobile-phone users will be ejected from movie theaters, libraries and classrooms
SOCIETY “It’s as if we were suddenly facing the bubonic plague. Is it the cows, or have we gone mad?” Italian butcher Pietro Stecchiotti on the hysteria over Europe’s latest BSE outbreak, which has endangered his livelihood
“Why should we kill one of our daughters to enable the other one to survive?” The parents of conjoined twins born in Manchester, England, on a court order to separate the girls in order to save one
“Doctors should not be treated as criminals.” Dutch Health Minister Els Borst, speaking on the day the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia
“I’m going to cry like a baby and I can’t wait!” Australian Cathy Freeman, after winning the women’s 400-meter Olympic gold medal in Sydney
“In Sydney, it’s time to accept our fate. We are the camp, excessive capital of the Wacky Country. And now the whole world knows.” The Daily Telegraph, after the city successfully hosted the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, in which organizers gave fans 115,000 rubber chickens to wave during closing ceremonies
“You want a piece of me?” Tennis star Venus Williams, playfully challenging John McEnroe after he was quoted as saying a good male college or senior player could beat her
“I was not outplayed at the board but was completely outprepared.” Garry Kasparov, on his defeat in the world-class chess championships at tht hand of Vladimir Kramnik, a former pupil
“There are two things in life I like: videogames and Harry Potter.” California 11-year-old Jerry Chan
“Eighteen is a great age for a cat.” “Cats” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, on the show’s closing after an 18-year run on Broadway
“Like the [Millennium] Dome and the monarchy, it would be a sign that Britain is a country that is refusing to grow up.” Biographer Anthony Holden, dismissing “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” by J.K. Rowling, as a serious candidate for the Whitbread Prize, which Seamus Heaney’s translation of “Beowolf” won by one vote
“You can drop your pants in a police station and shoot up, and no one would care.” Jan Sher, one of Pakistan’s growing population of heroin addicts
“No one knew that canyon was there. All of a sudden, two weeks later we got this data and it was like, ‘Look at that hole!’” Richard Zurek, the Mars Polar Lander project scientist, on the crater that may have marooned the spacecraft
“Our employees have been speculating on who will be the first to take advantage of the offer.” Yusuke Fukuda, a manager at Japanese toymaker Bandai Corp., which is trying to combat low birthrates by offering employees 1 million yen for every baby they have after their second child
“It took something like this to make the Miss American Pageant look good to me.” Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, referring to “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”
Cuban leaderhonoring John Lennon as a “revolutionary” hero on the 20th anniversary of the singer’s death
“What suffering, what dramatic events! But, also, what incredible achievements.” Pope John Paul II, highlighting the contrasts of the past century in his first blessing for the year 2000
“I hear that a millennium baby can claim four nationalities and be brought up by the state; is that true?” One of hundreds of expectant mothers in Beijing, where a millennial baby boom has kept Chinese doctors scrambling
“The world will become a safer place. People will sleep in peace.” Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma on the closing of the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant, 14 yeares after it spawned the worst nuclear accident in history
