Cheery
"My role will be to lead the cheer squad for the Australian team." — Prime Menzies John Howard, asked his plans during the Olympics.
Market failure
"The level of the dollar does not reflect the fundamentals of the Australian economy." — John Howard.
People failure
"People have stopped taking an interest in us." — Labor's shadow treasurer, Simon Crean, explaining the fall of the dollar.
Motive force
"American arrogance exists in proportion to the movement of the Nasdaq index." — Academic Francis Fukuyama, known for his "end of history" thesis.
Head start
"I know of no country ... where the love of money has taken a stronger hold on the affections of men." — Nineteenth century French writer Alexis de Tocqueville on the United States.
Doing good at last
"I believe she [Pauline Hanson] has done a lot of damage to the [One Nation] party." — One Nation policy coordinator and executive member Rod Smith.
As far as we know
"He [Alan Bond]'s well connected, switched on and he's got a lot of drive and energy. And he's not breaking the law, is he?" — Paul Hare, owner of ChequeExchange, which has just sold its British franchise to Bond.
He wasn't there
"The woman who knew I had dyslexia — I never interviewed her." — US presidential candidate George W. Bush, doing his best to stop a rumour about himself.