All my friends' mothers were appalling women.

The appalling thing is the degree of charity women are capable of. You see it all the time... love lavished on absolute fools. Love's a charity ward you know.

It is only by the rational use of technology to control and guide what technology is doing that we can keep any hopes of a social life more desirable than our own: or in fact of a social life which is not appalling to imagine.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.

In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.

Sometimes the only way to make palatable that which is appalling and apprehensive is to season it with some humor.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people but the appalling silence of the good people.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

We need to recognise that what really matters isn't buying more and more consumer goods but family friends and knowing that we are doing something worthwhile with our lives. Helping to reduce the appalling consequences of world poverty should be part of that reassessment.