Public employee unions are hardly the only group involved in bare-knuckles politics. Businesses lobby fiercely, and executives make hefty campaign donations.

Charles Duhigg

I'm fiercely patriotic, and the flag and the anthem is something that I really, really respect.

Abby Wambach

To prevent the death of mothers across our country, we must expand research, implement researched best practices, and fiercely work to understand why African American, Hispanic, and Native American mothers die at even higher rates than white mothers.

Abigail Spanberger

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature - opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.

Abraham Lincoln

I'm fiercely independent, but I'm also terrified of being alone.

Adam Levine

I'm still fiercely ambitious.

Alexei Sayle

From infancy, I have relied on the fiercely sweet spirits of black men; and this is abundantly clear in my work.

Alice Walker

I am not good wife material because I'm fiercely independent and like to go off and do my own thing.

Amanda Harlech

I have a fiercely independent spirit.

Amber Heard

My mother grew up strong. She was a charismatic leader among her peers, staging plays, organizing projects, raising money for charity; she was fiercely protective of her younger brother, with whom she shared a passion for jazz and rock and roll.

Anand Giridharadas

I like to think that I've got determination, and I'm fiercely protective of the people I love.

Andrew Lincoln

Oh, my God. I want to be a mother, and I anticipate loving my children quite fiercely. I think about it all the time, though it's a silly thing to think about because the kind of mother I'll be depends on the kind of children I have. I can't wait to meet them.

Anne Hathaway

I guess I'm just fiercely independent.

Anne Wojcicki

Dixie Carter was a goddess. The kind of wife and mother that every mother hopes their daughter will become and the kind of friend that is absolutely irreplaceable. She loved fiercely and was adored in return.

Annie Potts

McCain courted in 2008 what I would call 'fringe' evangelicals, in part because evangelicals were skeptical of his commitment to values voters. McCain's embrace of Palin came after having to scuttle endorsements from John Hagee and Rod Parsley, charismatics who believed in Armageddon and fiercely supported Israel.

Anthea Butler

We're fighting for community energy initiatives, warmer homes and crucial flood defences - and fiercely opposing the Government's assault on renewables.

Barry Gardiner

The number of people my age, younger now, a whole generation younger, who are fiercely bright, over-educated, under-employed and who are politicised and purposeless really upsets me. It's soul-destroying.

Benedict Cumberbatch

I have fiercely criticized both the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies and the Obama administration's - and fiercely defended both as well.

Benjamin Wittes

I've discovered that Motown and Broadway have a lot in common - a family of wonderfully talented, passionate, hardworking young people, fiercely competitive but also full of love and appreciation for the work, for each other and for the people in the audience.

Berry Gordy

Too many people get married and lose themselves. You have to fiercely hold on to who you are, and you need to celebrate that in the other person because that's what made you fall in love in the first place.

Bianca Kajlich

We will fiercely challenge those forces within the education establishment who impede innovation in our schools and who protect and defend inequality and institutional failure.

Campbell Brown