Verbatim

‘In the United States of America, we don’t practice guilt by association.’

1. DENIS MCDONOUGH, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser, addressing a mostly Muslim audience in Virginia; the speech came amid controversy over Representative Peter King’s hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims

‘When the Prime Minister came to Tahrir to speak to the people, was he blind? Did he not see that half of the people filling the square were women?’

2. NEHAD ABU EL KOMSAN, head of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, on the need for women to be included in Egypt’s political process

‘I’ll tell them that Discovery [was] a dream machine.’

3. ERIC BOE, pilot of Discovery during its final flight, on telling future grandkids about helming the spaceship; the U.S. shuttle program is ending this year

‘Welcome back, sir … Flying a little bigger plane than normal. Are you gonna launch some attacks on Libya or something?’

4. GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, joking with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates during his visit to Afghanistan; Petraeus was seemingly unaware that a microphone was picking up their exchange

‘He is most likely the Beast spoken of in the Revelation.’

5. MARGIE PHELPS, daughter of the founder of Westboro Baptist Church and attorney for the Kansas-based fringe group, whose right to picket military funerals was upheld by the Supreme Court on March 2, when asked if President Obama is going to hell