Quotables

"An advertising sales representative made a mistake."

New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt on the paper giving a heavily discounted rate to the liberal group MoveOn.org for its attack ad against Gen. David Petraeus. The American Conservative Union filed a complaint with the FEC charging that the discount amounted to a contribution to a political action committee that is illegal under campaign finance laws.

"I asked Him to give me time just to hear them cry."

Jacqueline Hemphill of Kansas City on her prayer upon learning that she would give birth to conjoined twins. Doctors told her that Joy and Joya would die shortly after they were delivered by Caesarean section on Sept. 24. Two days later, they were still alive.

"There's too much Pluribus and not enough Unum."

Filmmaker Ken Burns, director of the new PBS documentary The War, on the difference between today's generation of Americans and the generation that fought World War II.

"We're going to make the liquids tell on themselves."

Brian Tait of the Homeland Security Department's science and technology division on a new screening machine that identifies liquid explosives. Department officials say the machine may allow them to eliminate unpopular restrictions on carry-on liquids.