More subtle these days
"A quarter of a century ago the Australians who came here came in battle dress. They now come dressed for business." — Prime Minister Keating in Vietnam.
Mystery
"The resignations of cabinet members Graham Richardson and Ros Kelly have not dented the popularity of the federal Labor government ..." — Bulletin article on the latest opinion poll.
Second childhood?
"We are not a very grown-up government in budgetary matters right now." — US Senator Daniel Moynihan, commenting on the Congress's seeming inability to ratify the GATT agreement because of a law requiring it to finance the associated loss of US$13.9 billion in tariffs.
At the moment
"Businesses have to be financially healthy to employ people, so the profitability of our companies is our major focus at the moment." — Mining company MIM spokesperson, explaining why it is still "downsizing" its work force.
Until after the election
"Policies are a long way off." — Kathryn Greiner, wife of the former NSW premier, announcing her candidacy for lord mayor of Sydney on the "Sydney Alliance" ticket — an alliance of Liberals with Liberals.
Market success
"The problem is these items belonged either to the church or the state, and no-one ever thought about their market value." — Czech art historian Jana Katalikova on religious sculptures vanishing from churches in eastern Europe.
Seems likely
"There must have been some human errors and there must have been some fault in the process." — US defence secretary William Perry on the shooting down of two US helicopters in northern Iraq by US planes.