Quotables

"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works."

Senate banking committee chair Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., on the financial regulatory bill he helped to craft. He added, "This is about as important as it gets, because it deals with every single aspect of our lives."

"They couldn't have been spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas."

Teenager JESSIE GUGIG on the gardening skills of her neighbor, Cynthia Murphy, whom authorities say was part of a Russian program for planting secret agents in the United States.

"If somebody's paying $150,000 for a law school degree, you don't want to call them a loser at the end."

Former Duke University geophysics professor STUART ROJSTACZER on the trend toward grade inflation at law schools.

"I was stupid and arrogant, and needlessly mean."

Journalist David Weigel, after The Washington Post fired him for his overly explicit rants against conservatives on Journolist, an internet forum for several hundred left-leaning reporters, bloggers, and academics.

"They fit the philosophical definition of person­hood."

Marine biologist HAL WHITEHEAD of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, on dolphins and whales. Whitehead argues that their mental and social capacities are such that they should not be hunted.

"The ligament was spread out and you could see it."

Carley Schlentz, 13, after a shark attacked her off the North Carolina coast and she pulled her leg away from it. She received 60 stitches and is expected to recover fully.