The Clinton presidency - in quotes

Mr Clinton prepares to eat his words, during the Lewinsky scandal

Bill Clinton is regarded as the master of the sound-bite - the short, pithy sentence that sticks in the mind. BBC News Online looks back at some of his more memorable turns of phrase, and at what others have said about him:

What he said:

"When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale."
As a hopeful for the Democratic nomination

"It's the economy, stupid."
During the 1992 presidential election, when asked about the most important issue

"I was opposed to the war but I love my country."
On not serving in Vietnam

"Three strikes and you are out."
On his plans for mandatory life sentences for those convicted of a third violent offence

"You can't say you love your country and hate your government."
After a terrorist bomb destroys a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time - never. These allegations are false."
January 1998

Press reaction to the Lewinsky affair

"I did have a relationship with Ms Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible."
August 1998

"If President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war."
After launching US bombers against Serbia

"The people have spoken, but it will take a while to determine exactly what they said."
On the disputed election that eventually decided his successor

And what they said about him:

"A hard dog to keep on the porch."
Hillary Clinton

"He's like the guy you don't want your child to go out with."
Democratic congresswoman Gene Taylor

"He's probably the best politician the world has ever seen. He has positioned himself correctly, moved towards the middle and can be all things to all people."
John Hammerschmidt, an Arkansas Republican who defeated Clinton in a congressional race 25 years ago

"He is the Willy Loman of Generation X, a travelling salesman who has the loyalty of a lizard with his tail broken off and the midnight taste of a man who'd double date with the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart."
Author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson

"Bill Clinton has been a true leader of the western world. He has been a friend and a counsel to me and other leaders right around the world."
Tony Blair

"What does a Clinton really believe in? You might as well ask a chameleon to tell you its favourite colour."
Historian Joseph Sobran

"Clinton means what he says when he says it, but tomorrow he will mean what he says when he says the opposite. He is the existential president, living with absolute sincerety in the passing moment."
Michael Kelly in the New York Times

"Clinton has no qualities of a successful man and has become a hostage surrounded by Israeli advisers, ambassadors and businessmen. What concerns us in Clinton's tenure is not his scandals or success but the net with which he tried to hunt and strangle every bird in the Arab sky."
Editorial in Saudi Arabian newspaper al-Riyadh

"I've never seen a person who draws such love and such hate."
Beckie Moore, executive director of the Clinton Birthplace Foundation