The following quotes from Penn professors and others appeared in publications across the country and around the world.

There is the "constantly used argument that reading something is better than reading nothing. It is an impregnable position. But my question is: By presenting literature in this form, are we ensuring that children will never read the original?"

--Lawrence Sipe, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education, commenting on the return of Classic Comics after a 25-year hiatus (Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, Jan. 7).

"I'd bet my house that nobody in the room disagreed."

--Ellen Prince, chair of linguistics, commenting on support for a resolution of the Linguistic Society of America, commending Oakland schools for a plan to use Ebonics to teach black students standard English (Newsday, Sunday, Jan. 5).

"Why would you want to pay fifty dollars to buy a bottle and expose yourself to some potential toxicity?

--Penn toxicologist, Man Fung, about recent concerns over the safety of taking vitamin and mineral supplements that include colloidal silver (CNN: Your Health, Saturday, Jan. 18).

"I think people generally are so skeptical of the insanity defense that the prosecution generally enters with a rather large edge."

--David Rudovsky, professor of law, discussing the John DuPont murder trial (AP, Tuesday, Jan. 28).

"I think it's PR. The real issue is the impact of corporate contributions and wealthy special interests on the political process. And that's a real problem."

--Stephen Kobrin, an expert on the politics of international business at Wharton, talking about Clinton's new restrictions on foreign campaign donations (Durham [N.C] Herald-Sun, Sunday, Jan. 26).

Assembled by Sunil Kumar