Quotes About Rights

Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It does not denial of the divine right of kings; it asserts the divine right of all men.

Medical care is neither a right nor a privilege: it is a service provided by doctors and other to people who wish to purchase it.

The whole damn thing started when they gave women the vote.

I'm kind of jealous of people who haven't met you. If ignorance ever goes up to $5 a barrel, I want drilling rights to your head.

Far from undermining marriage, gay and lesbian couples seeking marriage for themselves are perhaps the institution's best friends. At a time when marriage is seen as less desirable and less necessary for straight couples, gay and lesbian people are lining up at town halls and church doors to participate in this traditional and long-standing institution.

The fact is, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people will never be a majority. We are a natural minority within the population. We will never garner enough votes to single-handedly bring about the change we seek. We need heterosexual people to stand with us, vote with us, and be a voice for us where we are not yet welcome.

Democracy is a freak condition in the world's history: civil liberties are not common liberties even today, and most people in the world have never possessed them.

I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights

When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated.

The fears of one class of men are not the measure of the rights of another.

Where the people possess no authority, their rights obtain no respect.

If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth — beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals — would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?

If crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. ... These two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

First, take the government of the Indians out of politics second, let the laws of the Indians be the same as those of the whites third, give the Indian the ballot.

Palestine must ultimately become a state which guards the rights and interests of Moslems, Jews and Christians alike."56

Whatever right the Second Amendment protects is not as important as it was 200 years ago... The government should deconstitutionalize the subject by repealing the embarrassing Amendment.

A rights-centered society, must, however, take seriously the fact that duties are not natural. They must be taught. Self-interest is common and steady; virtue is rare and unpredictable. A society devoted to guaranteeing a broad scope for self-interested behavior must be leavened by virtue. So measures must be taken to make virtue less rare and more predictable. Among those measures, Americans have always considered education crucial.

In another dissent, which became famous and influential, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes asserted an almost unlimited government police power flowing from "the right of a majority to embody their opinions in law." Notice that Holmes' majoritarianism led him to assert an essentially unlimited right.

Bestowing upon men equality of rights is but giving license to the strong to oppress the weak. It begets the grossest inequality of condition.

The pursuit of universal rights requires more than speeches. It requires power.

Nonhumanity is a dangerous label. If someone is nonhuman, they have no rights, Andrea. No protection.

In a true democracy, the vote of majority is absolute and has the power to override the interests of minority. In a republic, the individual rights of a citizen are absolute, and the vote of majority cannot infringe upon them.