Quotable & Notable

“He wrote … he was ‘prepared to give all that I am to ensure that all my boys make it home.’ ”

-- President Bush reading from a letter written by Sgt. Paul Smith, who two years ago in Baghdad firefight single-handedly saved the lives of more than 100 American soldiers but lost his own. April 4, Bush presented Smith’s 11-year-old son, David, with the Medal of Honor for his father.

“We all have a common task to protect life, ending the culture of impunity.”

-- Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor who is investigating war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan gave the world court April 5 a list of 51 names of government officials, Arab militia and rebels suspected of slaughter, rape and pillaging.

“We are already two factions de facto. In the next elections, we will run with two heads.”

-- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a growing divide between his wing of the Likud party and a “rebels” faction who oppose his disengagement policy with the Palestinian Authority

“Jim, you think he’s with Jesus now? We only have 30 seconds.”

-- CNN’s Larry King interviewing Jim Caviezel, star of “The Passion of the Christ,” about the death of John Paul II

“It’s a little bit for the losers.”

-- A Hong Kong online game player assessing “Vivienne,” a video-image “girlfriend” available for picture cell phone customers for $6 a month plus airtime. Vivienne speaks six languages and converses on 35,000 topics but won’t appear nude.

National Catholic Reporter, April 15, 2005