Perspectives

"All of the cardinals are agreed on zero tolerance." Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, on the new policy against sexual abuse of minors by priests

Help! A message hanging in the window of a school in Erfurt, eastern Germany, where students were held hostage after a shooting spree by an expelled student left 17 dead

"I am not going to permit you to be in a court of law without any legal sources whatsoever." Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, to terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, in response to his request to represent himself. She said she'd allow him to represent himself if a psychiatrist found him mentally capable.

"He did not slow the train at all." National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Marion C. Blakey, on the freight engineer who might be responsible for causing the head-on wreck that killed two passengers and injured hundreds more in California. Investigators said he was signaled to slow down, but the train sped up.

"Americans deserve the confidence of knowing that the individuals working in our airports are worthy of our trust." Attorney General John Ashcroft, on the increasing number of arrested airport employees. The recent arrest of 104 people brought the nationwide total of airport-employee-related arrests to 356 since September 11.

"Price-fixing is a crime whether it's committed in the grocery store or the halls of a great auction house." Judge George B. Daniels, on the crime that will send Sotheby's principal owner, Alfred Taubman, to prison for a year and a day

"To do this is not to create a special right for gay men and lesbians, but to end discrimination against them, as we have done for others." Maine Sen. Susan Collins, on the approval of a bill prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation

"Instead of ensuring that our water is clean to drink, they thought that maybe there wasn't enough arsenic in the drinking water." Former vice president Al Gore, criticizing the Bush administration in an Earth Day speech at Vanderbilt University

"I'll be honest--I guess we're a little homesick." Karen Hughes, one of the president's closest advisers, explaining why she was resigning and moving her family back to Texas

"The university is incapable of ordering blackboard erasers in quantities of more than six without a committee." Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers, displaying his impatience with slow decision making at the 366-year-old institution

"Thirteen billion to 14 billion." An updated estimate of the universe's age