Quotables

‘If it doesn’t cross the line, it comes very, very close to it.’

Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, on an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweet, which said, “Genie, you’re free,” after actor Robin Williams committed suicide. (Williams voiced the Genie in Aladdin.) “Suicide should never be presented as an option,” Moutier said. “That’s a formula for potential contagion.”

‘130 percent’

The growth, according to a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, in nonteaching staff at American public schools since 1970. During the same period, the number of teachers grew about 53 percent and the number of students grew less than 9 percent. The study found that a fourth of all public school spending in the United States now goes to nonteachers, a far higher share than in almost all other countries.

‘Great nations need organizing principles, and “Don’t do stupid stuff” is not an organizing principle.’

Presumed 2016 presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with The Atlantic. Clinton’s willingness to criticize President Obama has increased as she tries to separate herself from the increasingly unpopular president.

‘Possible détente.’

Description by the Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper, of Vatican-China relations after authorities in Beijing on Aug. 14 allowed the plane carrying Pope Francis to South Korea to use Chinese airspace.

‘[A lot of people] don’t want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.’

Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter James Risen, who has been for six years resisting administration efforts to force him to reveal confidential sources.