Basic Rights Quotes

• Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Mean, Belief

  26 Copy quote

• Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life.

  Jimmy Carter

  Peace, Freedom, Opportunity

  76 Copy quote

• Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Fear, People, Basic Human Rights

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a matrilineal society, a woman has basic rights that no one has to grant her but you can't take it away from her because the society is based on the concept that the lifegiver is equal to those she gave the life to. And that will remain... until you find a pregnant man.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Men, Rights, Equal

  Source: www.ourtimepress.com

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East regions is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime? Is not scientific R&D one of the basic rights of nations?

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Rights, Achievement, Middle East

  "EU3 pushing incentives plan for Iran". www.cnn.com. May 10, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If one benefits tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, is one morally implicated in their predicament? Or are basic rights of human existence confined to the civilized societies that are wealthy enough to afford them? Our values are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others.

  William Greider

  Rights, Done, Benefits

  17 Copy quote

• As straight Americans we have two choices: we can choose to sit back and enjoy our rights as we have them, or we can realize that it is actually not freedom at all when our friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues do not share these basic rights.

  Jack Antonoff

  Two, Rights, Choices

  "Straight Allies: The Importance and the Realities" by Jack Antonoff, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 16, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must never forget that many around the globe are denied the basic rights we enjoy as Americans. If we are to continue enjoying these privileges and freedoms we must accept our mission of expanding democracy around the globe.

  James Inhofe

  Rights, Democracy, Privilege

  8 Copy quote

• As more and more people awaken to the threats against our basic rights online, we must start a debate - everywhere - about the web we want.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  Rights, People, Want

  4 Copy quote

• The Saudi government's denial of basic rights to women is not only wrong, it hurts Saudi Arabia's economic development, modernization and prosperity.

  Barbara Boxer

  Hurt, Rights, Government

  64 Copy quote

• There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Successful, Rights, Order

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1959). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958”, p.397, Best Books on

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that.

  Ishmael Beah

  School, Kids, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• We can give our intelligence and law enforcement community the powers they need to track down and take out terrorists without undermining our commitment to the rule of law, or our basic rights and liberties.

  Barack Obama

  Commitment, Nsa, Rights

  "Senate Passes Its FISA Bill, While House Rejects 21 Day Extension Bill". www.techlawjournal.com. February 13, 2008.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are still countries where women don't enjoy basic rights like the vote or the freedom to study or the freedom of choice in marriage. Every year there are twenty million little girls in Africa who are deprived of their sexuality through brutal genital operations. Basically, there's still much to be done.

  Dacia Maraini

  Girl, Country, Rights

  Source: wordswithoutborders.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Good Friday Agreement and the basic rights and entitlements of citizens that are enshrined within it must be defended and actively promoted by London and Dublin.

  Gerry Adams

  Friday, Rights, Agreement

  Gerry Adams (2007). “An Irish Eye”, Brandon Books

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights...

  Jon Stewart

  Gay, Rights, People

  "David Bianculli's Top 10 TV Shows Of 2008". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. December 23, 2008.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• There can only be one answer to this hideous act of jihad against the staff of Charlie Hebdo. It is the obligation of the Western media and Western leaders, religious and lay, to protect the most basic rights of freedom of expression, whether in satire on any other form. The West must not appease, it must not be silenced. We must send a united message to the terrorists: Your violence cannot destroy our soul.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Religious, Media, Expression

  "How to Respond to Islamist Kalashnikovs in the Heart of Paris" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 7, 2015.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Bill of Rights existed long before President Obama was elected, and as long as I’m a U.S. Senator, I will fight to protect the basic rights and liberties that belong to all of us as American citizens.

  Rand Paul

  Fighting, Rights, Long

  4 Copy quote

• People, regardless of political views, matter in this state and in this country and in this world. And, you know, when people attack people's basic rights and livelihoods, I'm concerned about it. And as a citizen of Queensland and nothing else, I've got the right to express my view.

  Clive Palmer

  Country, Australia, Rights

  7 Copy quote

• I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Believe, Rights, Law

  "Obama Picks Hispanic Woman For Supreme Court". "National Public Radio News", www.npr.org. May 27, 2009.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'

  Thomas Sowell

  Teaching, Men, Rights

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.328, Hoover Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.

  Cesar Chavez

  Caring, Men, Rights

  28 Copy quote

• No, you can't deny women their basic rights and pretend it's about your 'religious freedom'. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Freedom, Women

  58 Copy quote

• Until relatively recently, mass political movements were still about basic rights of food, shelter, education and self sufficiency. The reasons fewer people vote these days, or turn up for political meetings, is that for the vast majority of us those rights have been fulfilled. These days it's in the adverts for mobile phones or foreign holidays where phrases like "Join the Revolution!" and "Cry Freedom!" are bandied about for a generation which knows nothing of their provenance. Just as now we have luxury illnesses to replace real ones, so now we have luxury politics.

  John Diamond

  Real, Holiday, Rights

  5 Copy quote

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - This great and inspiring instrument was born of an increased sense of responsibility by the international community for the promotion and protection of man's basic rights and freedoms. The world has come to a clear realization of the fact that freedom, justice and world peace can only be assured through the international promotion and protection of these rights and freedoms.

  U Thant

  Responsibility, Men, Rights

  18 Copy quote