"Hark! Hark to the wind! 'Tis the night, they say,
When all souls come back from the far away-
The dead, forgotten this many a day!"
-- Virna Sheard, from QuoteGarden.


Image from Castle-Vianden.

"I'll never get tired of livin'. But, I think it's a great waste of time to sit around in morbid fear of a fate we all have to share. I think the most important thing is you have to keep your head in the game. And to think about what you you're doin at the moment."
-- President Bill Clinton, on ABC's Prime Time Live, October 2004, after his quadruple bypass surgery.


Image from CNN.

"If George Bush is going to have his friends out there blaming the troops, then he needs to back up his claims with evidence. Mr. President, show America the order that you issued for our troops to secure these dangerous explosives. Our men and women in uniform did their jobs. It's our commander-in-chief, George Bush, who didn't do his."
-- Senator John Edwards, yesterday.


Image from kemwhite.com

"When the Bay of Pigs went sour, John Kennedy had the courage to look America in the eye and say, `I take responsibility, it's my fault'...John Kennedy knew how to take responsibility for the mistakes he made and Mr. President, it's long since time for you to start taking responsibility for the mistakes you made."
-- Senator John Kerry

"It is apparent to most of us in broadcasting that your father got you your job."
-- Howard Stern, to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, son of Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State, today.


Image from Facade.com.

"We need a fresh start in America. We need a fresh start in Iraq. We need a president who will look the American people in the eye always, and tell you the truth and trust you with the truth."
-- Senator John Kerry


Image from CNN.

"From time to time, I have been called the comeback kid. In eight days, John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country."
-- President Bill Clinton, today.


Image from The Guardian.

"They beat our asses, that's it."
--Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman, after the Yankees lost four straight games to the Red Sox.

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."
-- Will Rogers

"I'm voting for John Kerry because I'm a Christian. I know that my second cousin, George Bush, claims that he is the anointed leader of the American people and that God told him to run for office. I believe he may even believe that. I don't... My Christian faith is not looking for a new Messiah named George Bush. I am, however, looking for a leader. I believe that leader's name is John Kerry."

-- Jeanny House, Cousin to President George W. Bush, on BushRelativesForKerry.com

"It's wonderful to be famous as long as you remain unknown."
-- Degas


Image from Hiroshima Museum.

"Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!"
-- Mayor, The Nightmare Before Christmas.


Image from Gorey Details.

"If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one."
-- John Galsworthy

"If celebrities didn't want people pawing through their garbage and saying they're gay, they shouldn't have tried to express themselves creatively."
-- Homer Simpson


Image from Yelloworld.

"We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better.

"Voting for president is a leap of faith. A candidate can explain his positions in minute detail and wind up governing with a hostile Congress that refuses to let him deliver. A disaster can upend the best-laid plans. All citizens can do is mix guesswork and hope, examining what the candidates have done in the past, their apparent priorities and their general character. It's on those three grounds that we enthusiastically endorse John Kerry for president."

-- Editorial, John Kerry for President, The New York Times.

"The best spin for the Democrats is that they're using Mary Cheney to paint their opponents as hypocrites: Republicans feign acceptance of all people, trot their own daughters out to demonstrate their fairness, then propose that the Constitution be amended to deny equal rights to same-sex couples. They want to have it both ways."
-- William B. Rubenstein, Op-ed contributer, Play It Straight, The New York Times, today.

"Kerry expressed the human side of an issue that Bush has worked so hard to politicize to his advantage at the cost of families."
-- Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, as quoted in Cheney Criticizes Kerry for Mentioning Daughter,by David Stout, in The New York Times.


Image from Repubblica.it

"Six months after he said Osama Bin Laden must be caught dead or alive, this President was asked, 'Where is Osama bin Laden?' He said, 'I don't know. I don't really think about him very much. I'm not that concerned.' We need a President who stays deadly focused on the real war on terror."
-- Senator John Kerry, at last night's debate.

"Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama Bin Laden."
"That's kind of one of those - exaggerations."
-- President George Bush, at last night's debate.

"I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him. ... I truly am not that concerned about him."
-- President George W. Bush, at a 2002 White House press conference.

"When the clutter of crazy parents is removed, kids excel."
--Michael DeSisto, founder of the DeSisto School.

"Which one's Cheney?"
-- Jack Edwards, four-year-old son of Senator John Edwards, as exclaimed to his father immediately following the Vice Presidential Debates last week, and quoted on Face the Nation on Sunday.


Image from TimesReporter.com

"I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery."
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004, as quoted in The New York Times obituary.


Image from AllPosters.com

"When a questioner named Linda asked the president to give three bum decisions he had made in office, Mr. Bush took a pass. Lincoln could admit mistakes. J.F.K. could admit mistakes. But W. thinks admitting mistakes is for powder puffs. Of his decision to invade Iraq, he said: "Sometimes in this world you make unpopular decisions because you think they're right." Or you stick to them even after you know they're wrong."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, today.


Image from Amherst College.

"Dear Friends,

By the time you read this, I will have reported to a minimum-security prison in Alderson, West Virginia, to begin serving my five-month sentence.

As I announced in September, although my lawyers remain very confident in the strength of my appeal and will continue to pursue it on my behalf, I have decided to serve my sentence now because I want to put this nightmare behind me as quickly as possible for the good of my family and my company.

While I am away, my updates here will be less frequent, if not altogether impossible. But please know this change is only an unfortunate reflection of my current circumstances, and in no way diminishes my commitment to my life’s work or to the friends, colleagues, customers and supporters who make it possible.

I am overwhelmed that this website has received more than 40 million hits since its creation, and even more so that almost 200,000 supporters have taken the time to write and share their thoughts. As always, I extend my deepest appreciation for the continuing encouragement I have received throughout this ordeal from so many wonderful people.

With your good wishes in my heart, I am looking forward to being back at work in March, and to many brighter days ahead.

Sincerely,
Martha Stewart"

-- Martha Stewart, on her website yesterday.

"President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have an unparalleled ability to insulate themselves from inconvenient facts. They lead a party that controls all three branches of government, and face news media that in some cases are partisan supporters, and in other cases are reluctant to state plainly that officials aren't telling the truth. They also still enjoy the residue of the faith placed in them after 9/11.

"This has allowed them to engage in what Orwell called 'reality control.' In the world according to the Bush administration, our leaders are infallible, and their policies always succeed. If the facts don't fit that assumption, they just deny the facts.

"As a political strategy, reality control has worked very well. But as a strategy for governing, it has led to predictable disaster. When leaders live in an invented reality, they do a bad job of dealing with real reality.

"... The point is that in the real world, as opposed to the political world, ignorance isn't strength. A leader who has the political power to pretend that he's infallible, and uses that power to avoid ever admitting mistakes, eventually makes mistakes so large that they can't be covered up. And that's what's happening to Mr. Bush."

-- Paul Krugman, The New York Times, today.

"The Democrat was more effective, and more on point, in challenging Mr Cheney on rationales for the Iraq war that have proven false...

Mr Cheney parried by attacking, with justification, inconsistencies in the Kerry-Edwards position on Iraq shaped more by politics than conviction... He was right to chide the Kerry-Edwards team for appearing insufficiently appreciative of the allies and Iraqis who have fought alongside US troops...

Debates are partly about momentum, and if Democratic nominee John F Kerry was on the upswing after last week's debate, nothing that happened last night is likely to stop that. If they are also partly about highlighting differences, this debate would have to be judged a success: In style and substance, the vice presidential candidates were about as distinct as two contenders could be."

Editorial, Washington Post, yesterday.

"I get no respect. I bought a cemetery plot. The guy said, 'There goes the neighborhood.'"
-- Rodney Dangerfield, 1921-2004, as the joke of the day on Rodney.com, on the day of his death, yesterday.


Image from Jim Britt Photography.

"I don't have the same view of the world as Dick Cheney and that's a good thing, that's not a bad thing."
-- Senator John Edwards, to a Cleveland area audience of supporters, prior to the Vice Presidential Debate, as quoted by Reuters.


Image from eVote.com

"I've been blessed with a remarkable career, and I have so many favorite roles, but I've resigned myself to the fact that 'Psycho' will be in the headlines of my obituary."
-- Janet Leigh, 1927-2004, to Zap2It.com in a 2001 interview.


Image from Zap2It.com

"We have substantially abandoned the war against terrorism. There was an unprecedented outpouring of support after 9/11, and we have wasted away all that support. We are the most unpopular country in the world. Even friends have turned away."
-- President Jimmy Carter, as quoted by Virus Head.


Image from Japan Today.

"I've worked out of no's. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narratives. And those no's force me to a yes. I have white background. I have the person I am interested in and the thing that happens between us."
Richard Avedon, photographer, 1923-2004.


Image from SergeCohen.com

"What pleased me about the debate last night was that we had an opportunity finally to be able to stand up in front of Americans as two people -- no 30-second advertisements, no distortions -- and talk about the truth to the American people... I do have a better plan to defend America. I will fight and hunt down and kill the terrorists wherever they are and I'm going to provide America with the ability to do it."
-- Senator John Kerry


Image from AP