Famous Quotes & Sayings

Molly Ivins

There is no inverse relationship between freedom and security. Less of one does not lead to more of the other. People with no rights are not safe from terrorist attack.

Kate Chopin

She's got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.

Julian Bond

Unlike mainstream civil rights groups, which merely sought integration of blacks into the existing order, SNCC sought structural changes in American society itself,

Julian Bond

The humanity of all Americans is diminished when any group is denied rights granted to others.

Mary Robinson

There's a worldwide linking of environmental activists, developmental experts and human rights advocates. And they're using the two frameworks, in particular environmental standards and human rights.

Mary Robinson

Climate change is the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century.

Mary Robinson

Today's human rights violations are the causes of tomorrow's conflicts.

Mary Ritter Beard

In their (women) quest for rights they have naturally placed emphasis on their wrongs rather than their achievements and possessions, and have retold history as a story of their long martyrdom

Martin Farquhar Tupper

Law hath dominion over all things, over universal mind and matter; For there are reciprocities of rights, which no creature can gainsay.

Marquis de Lafayette

True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate.

Marquis de Lafayette

Insurrection is the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.

Mario Vargas Llosa

The foundations of liberty are private property and the rule of law; this system guarantees the fewest possible forms of injustice, produces the greatest material and cultural progress, most effectively stems violence and provides the greatest respect for human rights. According to this concept of liberalism, freedom is a single, unified concept. Political and economic liberties are as inseparable as the two sides of a medal.

Noam Chomsky

In some ways, [the student anti-sweatshop movement] is like the anti-apartheid movement, except that in this case its striking at the core of the relations of exploitation. Much of this was initiated by Charlie Kernaghan of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights...

Mary McCarthy

Once the state is looked upon as the source of rights, rather than their bound protector, freedom becomes conditional on the pleasure of the state.

Nawal El Saadawi

What we require is not a formal return to tradition and religion, but a rereading, a reinterpretation, of our history that can illuminate the present and pave the way to a better future. For example, if we delve more deeply into ancient Egyptian and African civilisations we will discover the humanistic elements that were prevalent in many areas of life. Women enjoyed a high status and rights, which they later lost when class patriarchal society became the prevalent social system.

Mikhail Bakunin

The right to unite freely and to separate freely is the first and most important of all political rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

President Lyndon Johnson's high spirits were marked as he circulated among the many guests whom he had invited to witness an event he confidently felt to be historic, the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.... The bill that lay on the polished mahogany desk was born in violence in Selma, Alabama, where a stubborn sheriff... had stumbled against the future.

Mark Udall

Ranchers need clean water for their stock, farmers need it for their crops, every employer needs it to stay in business, and every living thing needs it for life... The law needs to be clear to protect water quality and the rights of landowners.

Nicholas D. Kristof

In general, talking about human rights tends to be very persuasive for people who care about human rights.

Nathanael Greene

I am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my life in the attempt.

Nathan Myhrvold

If people don't get paid for their inventions, that's not a good thing. In the case of many patents, there are people who aren't in a position to take them to the next level. If you don't enforce your rights, no one is going to enforce them for you.

Potter Stewart

The dichotomy between personal liberties and property rights is a false one. Property does not have rights. People have rights.

Joseph Sobran

The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, was meant to inhibit only the federal government, not the states. The framers, as The Federalist Papers attest (see No. 28), saw the state militias as forces that might be summoned into action against the federal government itself, if it became tyrannical.

Paul Robeson

Whether I am or am not a Communist is irrelevant. The question is whether American citizens, regardless of their political beliefs or sympathies, may enjoy their constitutional rights.

Patricia Arquette

Women have more rights, and women do have their own power in the world.

Pasquier Quesnel

Zeal is very blind, or badly regulated, when it encroaches upon the rights of others.

Laurence Tribe

[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government.

L. Neil Smith

We're most likely to lose our rights when we allow ourselves to be persuaded to deprive others of theirs.

Marcus Luttrell

..Washington, where the human rights of terrorists are often given high priority. And I am certain liberal politicians would defend their position to the death. Because everyone knows liberals have never been wrong about anything. You can ask them. Anytime.

Kevin Mitnick

I can go into LinkedIn and search for network engineers and come up with a list of great spear-phishing targets because they usually have administrator rights over the network. Then I go onto Twitter or Facebook and trick them into doing something, and I have privileged access.

Martin Delany

The rights of no oppressed people have ever yet been obtained by a voluntary act of justice on the part of the oppressors.

Pope John Paul II

The dignity of the human person is a transcendent value, always recognized as such by those who sincerely search for the truth. Indeed, the whole of human history should be interpreted in the light of this certainty. Every person, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1:26 28), is therefore radically oriented towards the Creator, and is constantly in relationship with those possessed of the same dignity. To promote the good of the individual is thus to serve the common good, which is that point where rights and duties converge and reinforce one another.

Pope Francis

Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.