Ann Oakley
Ann Oakley

Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.

Anne Brontë
Anne Brontë

If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them - not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.

Anthea Butler
Anthea Butler

Gun rights advocates - many whom also believe that the US constitution is divinely inspired and that the rights it enumerates are God-given - face a conundrum. Their very insistence that the government not restrict guns in public spaces or limit their sales in any way also obviously inhibit other Americans' rights as covered by the US constitution.

Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins

I don't know why they gave me a knighthood - though it's very nice of them - but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don't.

Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis

Is it 'left' to insist that presidents and CIA directors adhere to the law? I don't think so. I think it's American.

Aram Saroyan
Aram Saroyan

I have friends who died being successful bohemians. Today, I see people my age who are gifted but who insisted on staying in this group, and it's beaten them so bad. They have to spend so much time on ego maintenance, they can't get any work done. They'd be very happy to sell out, but there are no buyers, and that hurts.

Aravind Adiga
Aravind Adiga

Columbia University, where I went to study in 1993, insisted its undergraduates learn a foreign language, so I discovered French.

Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin

I didn't really want to sing at first, but my dad insisted that I do.

Charlie Brooker
Charlie Brooker

Amplifying body-image issues, profiting from anxiety, and employing virtual slaves in sweatshops are bad enough, but the fashion industry is also actively hastening the destruction of the very Earth we walk on. It insists on launching fresh collections each season, declaring yesterday's range obsolete on a whim.

Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger

If any successes has come to me, it came because I insisted on thinking things through. That's all I was capable of doing in life, was thinking pretty hard about trying to get the right answer, and then acting on it. I never learned to do anything else.