“After all, he was human, in spite of rumors to the contrary.”

“A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.”

“A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.”

“...for very strangely his officers looked upon Jack Aubrey as a moral figure, in spite of all proofs of the contrary...”

“I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race—I am ashamed to belong to such a species.”

“I am so far from being a pessimist...on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at life.”