Rights Quotes - Page 20

• Gays have rights, lesbians have rights, men have rights, women have rights, even animals have rights. How many of us have to die before the community recognizes that we are not expendable?

  Octavia St. Laurent

  Gay, Men, Animal

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• I think this conflict [against terrorism] is going to require a suspension of freedom and rights unlike anything we have ever seen, at least since World War II.

  Marlin Fitzwater

  War, Thinking, World

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• Listing rights generally involves enumerating things you may do without interference (the right to free speech) or may not be done to you without your permission (illegal search and seizure, loud boy-band music in public places). They are protections, not gifts of material goods. Material goods and services must be taken from others, or provided by their labor, so if you believe you have an absolute right to them, and others don't choose to provide it to you, you then have a 'right' to steal from them. But what about their far more fundamental right not to be robbed?

  Cliff Asness

  Believe, Taken, Boys

  "Health Care Mythology" by Cliff Asness, www.realclearpolitics.com. July 22, 2009.

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• The decay of decency in the modern age, the rebellion against law and good faith, the treatment of human beings as things, as the mere instruments of power and ambition, is without a doubt the consequence of the decay of the belief in man as something more than an animal animated by highly conditioned reflexes and chemical reactions. For, unless man is something more than that, he has no rights that anyone is bound to respect, and there are no limitations upon his conduct which he is bound to obey.

  Walter Lippmann

  Ambition, Men, Animal

  Walter Lippmann, Clinton Rossiter, James Lare (1982). “The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy”, p.129, Harvard University Press

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• A woman cannot do the thing she ought, which means whatever perfect thing she can, in life, in art, in science, but she fears to let the perfect action take her part and rest there: she must prove what she can do before she does it, -- prate of woman's rights, of woman's mission, woman's function, till the men (who are prating, too, on their side) cry, A woman's function plainly is... to talk. Poor souls, they are very reasonably vexed!

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Art, Women, Mean

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1864). “Poems”, p.353

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• If the government can set aside some spot for a elk to be a elk without being bothered, or a buffalo to be a buffalo without being shot down, there ought to be some place where a Negro can be a Negro without being Jim Crowed.

  Langston Hughes

  Government, Buffalo, Elk

  Langston Hughes (2015). “The Best of Simple”, p.63, Hill and Wang

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• Principles-and I have in mind such principles as states' rights or national sovereignty or the free market or pacifism-have a way of drying up while the sap of life goes flowing in another direction.

  Max Lerner

  Mind, Principles, Sap

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• During war we imprison the rights of man.

  Jean Giraudoux

  War, Men

  Jean Giraudoux (1963). “Judith. Tiger at the gates. Duel of angels”

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• Although we have, in theory, abolished human slavery, recognized women's rights, and stopped child labor, we continue to enslave other species who, if we simply pay attention, show quite clearly that they experience parental love, pain, and the desire for freedom, just as we do.

  Ingrid Newkirk

  Pain, Children, Desire

  "Trayvon Martin Case Reminds Us: Never Be Silent" by Ingrid Newkirk, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 17, 2012.

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• The thinkers of the world should by rights be guardians of the world's mirth.

  Agnes Repplier

  World, Mirth, Guardian

  Agnes Repplier (1904). “Compromises”

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• If some people got their rights they would complain of being deprived of their wrongs.

  Oliver Herford

  People, Society, Complaining

  Oliver Herford, Addison Mizner (1907). “The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom...”

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• Like other discriminatory legislation in our country's history, immigration laws define and differentiate legal status on the basis of arbitrary attributes. Immigration laws create unequal rights. People who break immigration laws don't cause harm or even potential harm (unlike, for example, drunk driving, which creates the potential for harm even if no accident occurs). Rather, people who break immigration laws do things that are perfectly legal for others, but denied to them--like crossing a border or, even more commonly, simply exist.

  Aviva Chomsky

  Country, Law, Drunk

  Aviva Chomsky (2007). “They Take Our Jobs!: And 20 Other Myths about Immigration”, p.184, Beacon Press

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• In the new century, we should continue to work together to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the vast number of developing countries including China and India and promote the establishment of a just and equitable new international political and economic order.

  Li Peng

  Country, Order, Numbers

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• Every social system is more or less against nature, and at every moment nature is at work to reclaim her rights.

  Paul Valery

  Society, Moments, Social

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• We [Americans] have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Passion, Men, Gains

  Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Stanley Link (1977). “The Papers of Woodrow Wilson”

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• Putting the World to Rights

  Margaret Thatcher

  Confidence, World

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• True, the movement for woman's rights has broken many old fetters, but it has also forged new ones.

  Emma Goldman

  Broken, Feminism, Movement

  "Anarchism and Other Essays".

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• ... every man on the planet Has just as much right as yourself to the road.

  John Boyle O'Reilly

  Men, Planets, Every Man

  John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

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• By rights you're a king. If I was you, I'd call for a new deal.

  O. Henry

  Kings, Deals, New Deal

  O. Henry (1995). “100 Selected Stories”, p.86, Wordsworth Editions

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• The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship God according to the dictates of ones conscience.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Pursuit Of Happiness, Government, Liberty

  William Jennings Bryan (1917). “Heart to Heart Appeals”

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• If you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, if you believe in people's rights, if you believe in the harmony of all humankind - then you have no choice but to back Fidel Castro as long as it takes!

  Harry Belafonte

  Believe, Long, People

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• I've been active in animal rights and all kinds of environmental stuff and children's charities over the years.

  Martina Navratilova

  Children, Animal, Years

  "Martina Navratilova On Staying Fit, Coming Out, Battling Cancer And Transcending Sports". Interview With Laura Rowley, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 10, 2012.

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• Well, take the evolution of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It began as hackers' rights. Then it became general civil liberties of everybody - government stay away.

  Esther Dyson

  Government, Liberty, Foundation

  "On the Frontier: An Interview with Esther Dyson". Interview with Virginia Postrel, reason.com. October, 1996.

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• Women's rights, men's rights-human rights-all are threatened by the everpresent specter of war so destructive now of human material and moral values as to render victory indistinguishable from defeat.

  Rosika Schwimmer

  War, Men, Victory

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• There are significant human rights abuses in China. In some areas, the situation is worse today than in the past. In other areas, there have been improvements. We will recognize the latter, and be critical of the former.

  Max Baucus

  Past, Abuse, Today

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