I support allowing gay couples to marry because of - not in spite of - my values. And many of those values are the same ones deeply held by those who do not believe in gay marriage.

All my life affection has been showered upon me and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.

Father in spite of all this spending of money in learning Latin I will be a painter.

Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.

According to Richard Clarke the former White House counterterrorism chief Bush was so obsessed with Iraq that he failed to take action against Osama Bin Laden despite repeated warnings from his intelligence experts.

Despite our very recent appearance on the planet humanity combines arrogance with increasing material demands even as we become more numerous. Our toughness is a delusion. Have we the intelligence and discipline to vigilantly guard against our tendency to grow without limit?

It took me less than half a lifetime to realize that regret is one of the few guaranteed certainties. Sooner or later everything is touched by it despite our naive and senseless hope that just this time we will be spared its cold hand on our heart.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

Let me tell you never before in the history of this planet has anybody made the progress that African-Americans have made in a 30-year period in spite of many black folks and white folks lying to one another.

Governments that use violence to stop democratic development will not earn themselves respite forever. They will pay an increasingly high price for actions which they can no longer hide from the world with ease and will find themselves on the wrong side of history.