“I wasted two years of my life training Iranians to start up a navy and to build good relations. This is what we get for being the nice guy trying to help them out and protect them from Iraq. Not only do we have Iraq hating us, now we have Iran. Our foreign policy has to lean more towards Teddy Roosevelt – speak softly, carry a big stick and don’t take crap from any of them. We need more thinkers like General Patton and more presidents like Teddy Roosevelt.”

Lionel Strong

Enfield, camp manager at Grants Kennabago Camps in Rangeley

“I hope what we have learned is patience. Americans have a preoccupation with instant success. The terrorists don’t have that preoccupation. They plan and sacrifice for years in order to make a tactical move. One of many reasons we didn’t fare well in Vietnam was because we were very impatient. Hopefully we will be patient in airport lines, supermarket lines and in the war effort. The president has said over and over and over again it could take years. It will be interesting to see if the American public has bought into that instead of wanting an instant resolution.”

Wayne Scarano

Millinocket, a former police chief and Vietnam veteran

“I’ve never, ever, run away from an assignment in more than 20 years of doing this, but running from that saved my life. If I had continued to take pictures, I would have been killed.”

David Handschuh

New York Daily News photographer covering the twin towers’ collapse

“The number of casualties will be more than most of us can bear.”

Rudolph Giuliani

Then- mayor of New York City

Sept. 11

“We still put our pants on one leg at a time. We don’t do it two at a time. We’re not Supermen.”

Mike Heffernan

New York firefighter