Quotes

Quotes about Rights


Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isle
From her propriety.

William Shakespeare

Reparation for our rights at home, and security against the like future violations.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

They made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called the Rights of Man.

Edmund Burke

We hold these truths to be self-evident,--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thomas Jefferson

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,--entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;...freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,--these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

Thomas Jefferson

What constitutes a state?
.......
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain.
.......
And sovereign law, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.

Sir William Jones

As though there were a tie
And obligation to posterity.
We get them, bear them, breed, and nurse:
What has posterity done for us.
That we, lest they their rights should lose,
Should trust our necks to gripe of noose?

John Trumbull

Property has its duties as well as its rights.

Thomas Drummond

Property has its duties as well as its rights.

Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli

Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

William Lloyd Garrison

You can not possibly have a broader basis for any government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

William Lloyd Garrison

How he lies in his rights of a man!
Death has done all death can.
And absorbed in the new life he leads,
He recks not, he heeds
Nor his wrong nor my vengeance; both strike
On his senses alike,
And are lost in the solemn and strange
Surprise of the change.

Robert Browning

They [the blacks] had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

Miscellaneous

All rights left. All lefts reserved. All reserves removed. All removes right.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

James Madison

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.

Roger Baldwin

The basic difference between being assertive and being aggressive is how our words and behavior affect the rights and well being of others.

Sharon Anthony Bower

The Swallow, the Serpent, and the Court of Justice A swallow, returning from abroad and especially fond of dwelling with men, built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice and there hatched seven young birds. A Serpent gliding past the nest from its hole in the wall ate up the young unfledged nestlings. The Swallow, finding her nest empty, lamented greatly and exclaimed: Woe to me a stranger! that in this place where all others' rights are protected, I alone should suffer wrong.

Aesop

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. . . .

Thomas Jefferson

The basic difference between being assertive and being aggressive is how our words and behavior affect the rights and well being of others.

Sharon Anthony Bower

The years of slavery are past, The Belgian rejoices once more; Courage restores to him at last The rights he held of yore. Strong and firm his grasp will be-- Keeping the ancient flag unfurled To fling its message on the watchful world: For king, for right, for liberty. [Fr., Apres des siecles d'esclavage, Le Belge sortant du tombeau, A reconquis par son courage, Son nom, ses droits et son drapeau, Et ta main souveraine et fiere, Peuple desormais indompte, Grava sur ta vieille banniere, Le Roi, la loi, la liberte.

Louis A. Dechez ("Jenneval")

By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are abused; the law itself is influenced by gold, and soon there will be an end of every modest restraint. [Lat., Auro pulsa fides. auro venalia jura, Aurum lex sequitur, mox sine lege pudor.]

Sextus Propertius

Capitalism is our only moral system. All other systems take advantage of man's rights and liberties.

Ayn Rand

The Divine Perfections. How shall I praise th' eternal God, That Infinite Unknown? Who can ascend his high abode, Or venture near his throne? The great invisible! He dwells Conceal'd in dazzling light: But his all-searching eye reveals The secrets of the night. Those watchful eyes that never sleep, Survey the world around; His wisdom is the boundless deep, Where all our thoughts are drown'd. He knows no shadow of a change, Nor alters his decrees; Firm as a rock his truth remains, To guard his promises. Justice, upon a dreadful throne, Maintains the rights of God; While mercy sends her pardons down, Bought with a Saviour's blood. Now to my soul immortal King, Speak some forgiving word; Then `twill be double joy to sing The glories of my Lord.

Isaac Watts

To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church. [Fr., Pour soutenir tes droits, que le ciel autorise, Abime tout plutot; c'est l'esprit de l'Eglise.]

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

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