Verbatim: Oct. 17, 2005

"Lord, you know I don't have the wisdom to make this decision. You know that what I feel now and what I think is right may be dead wrong."

JAMES DOBSON, Focus on the Family founder, qualifying his support of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. He had been quoted as saying, "Some of what I know I am not at liberty to talk about."

"A civil war could erupt at any moment, although some people would say it is already there."

AMR MOUSSA, Arab League secretary-general, describing Iraq ahead of Saturday's referendum on the proposed constitution

"Whatever the scientists say, our Prophet said that when this earth is replete with sin, this would happen."

IMAM AT THE ILLAHI BAGH MOSQUE, in Srinagar, India, after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, flattening villages, triggering landslides and killing thousands

"If I'm going to make a mistake, you can rest assured it is going to be on the side of being cautious."

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, New York City mayor, on alerting the public about a terrorist threat--the first to specifically target the city's subway system--that federal officials deemed "noncredible"

"This is not a kick in the shin of any nation, any leader."

OLE DANBOLT MJOES, Norwegian Nobel Committee chair, denying that the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, was a dig at the U.S. over the war in Iraq

"I know Democrats hate me, and they hate what I believe in, and they hate the amazing things we've been able to accomplish ever since we've been in the majority."

TOM DELAY, Texas Congressman forced to relinquish his title as House majority leader after he was indicted last month, proclaiming his innocence last week after his second indictment

"Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honor."

GREGG MILLER, on winning the Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine from humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research. He created fake testicles that have been implanted in some 150,000 neutered animals

Sources: Dallas Morning News and New York Times; BBC; TIME; CNN; AP (3)