Could say that
"I guess we still have some bugs to work out." — Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates, after the company's new Windows 98 system crashed during a demonstration at the Comdex Spring Computer Show in Chicago.
Prefers secrecy
"The Prime Minister has demanded that State police enforce injunctions against picketers ... saying it was 'very unsatisfactory' that people had been allowed to openly defy the law." — Sydney Morning Herald, April 23.
History lesson
"Fire low and lay them out. Lay the disturbers of law and order out, so that the duty will not have again to be performed. Let it be a lesson to them." — Colonel Tom Price, urging Australian Defence Force troops to fire on strikers in Melbourne during the maritime strike of 1890. Excerpts from the speech were reprinted in the April 21 Financial Review.
Personality
"The assistant has a female voice with a personality that is strong, confident, direct and trustworthy." — Steven Markman, chief executive of computer company General Magic, on the firm's new program, Magic Talk, intended to replace secretaries.
It breaks his heart
"As much as we want to reverse the savagery of the Howard-Costello budget cuts over the last two years, the economic conditions we will confront ... mean that we will have to exercise real budgetary constraint." — ALP shadow treasurer Gareth Evans.
And then there's parliament
"When the Federal Government declared its intention to crack down on a grossly overpaid, mollycoddled group of employees, whose greedy pursuit of personal enrichment is conducted with utter contempt for Australia's national interest ... I was appalled. Some of my best friends work in the money market." — Malcolm McGregor in the Financial Review.