Perspectives

" We have not received the kind of support that we were requesting from our friends. So in a situation like that, one has to look for new friends. "
—Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde, rebuking European allies for failing to help ease his country's financial crisis. Iceland has since turned to Russia for a €4 billion loan.

" In a bout, compromises and concessions are permissible, but only in one case: if it is for victory. "
—Russian Prime Minister and martial-arts black belt Vladimir Putin, in a new video "Let's Learn Judo With Vladimir Putin"

" If you are worried about what utopia is going to be like, don ' t: at least in the developed world, and at least for the time being, you are living in it now. "
—British geneticist Steve Jones, opining that the mechanisms driving human evolution—natural selection, mutation and random change—have been largely eliminated in the 21st century

" It feels like a punch. "
—An anonymous salesman at a boutique for bulletproof clothes in Mexico City, on the mandatory shot to the torso that all sales staff receive when they first try on the shop's merchandise

" It is not enough they are stealing our land. They are also stealing our civilization and our cuisine. "
—Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, whose group plans to sue Israel to prevent it from marketing hummus, baba ghanouj and tabbouleh as Israeli rather than Lebanese