When I was in the first grade I was afraid of the teacher and had a miserable time in the reading circle a difficulty that was overcome by the loving patience of my second grade teacher. Even though I could read I refused to do so.

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.

I get up every morning and it's going to be a great day. You never know when it's going to be over so I refuse to have a bad day.

I remember being at school during morning meeting and looking around at everybody 350 kids saying a prayer. We're all very young and no one knows what it means and I remember feeling strange that people were just repeating words that they didn't understand. I refused to participate. For some reason I always rejected it but respectfully.

I don't work very much and I just sit here waiting for a script that I can't refuse - and I'm not talking about money.

It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.

I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger every innovation as a toilsome trouble every social advance as a first step toward revolution and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.

I had only two offers of marriage in my life and I refused both.

I refused David Letterman's proposal of marriage for obvious reasons but thanks for asking.

Our national media refuses to report that even the Supreme Court did not say marriage was a human right in all cases nor did it say that the heterosexual definition violated anyone's right or that the heterosexual definition of marriage was unconstitutional.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

In places where marriage's core meaning has been altered through legal action officials are beginning to target for punishment those believers and churches that refuse to adapt.

I wish the government and the Minister of Justice would address these legal and constitutional arguments but they refuse to. They want Canadians to go blindly into their brave new world but it is not wise for a society to move blindly in any direction.

I never refused an autograph never refused to buy someone a drink. Now I'm learning to say I've got other things on instead of doing it and wondering why.

House Republican leadership have refused to allow a clean minimum wage vote. Close to 15 million Americans will be affected if we did this. Do Republicans really expect a family to live on less than $11 000 a year?

I refuse to be molded into some stereotypical ballplayer that has no interests really no life no depth no intelligence.

I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

When I met my husband I refused to invite him home for Passover because I was embarrassed my mother might serve all the catered dishes in the wrong order.

I think the Democrats are catering to them but you know in the entire history of the United States of America there has never been a judge who has been refused a vote when there was a majority of Senators willing to vote for his confirmation never in history.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

And whether it is equal pay health care Social Security or family leave this Congress has refused to address issues critical to hard-working American women.

When it comes to the health of our families Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day another president. He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically - that's not how he was raised - he cared that it was the right thing to do.