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Human rights16 quotes
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. — Declaration of Independence · 1776I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of human rights. — Desmond Tutu · 1985"A fair day's-wages for a fair day's work:" it is as just a demand as Governed men ever made of Governing. It is the everlasting right of man. — Thomas Carlyle · 1843Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. — Honore de Balzac · 1834Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious beings...No infant-disabled or not-has as strong a claim to life as beings capable of seeing themselves as distinct entities, existing over time. — Peter Singer · 1979All 16 quotes →
Natural law7 quotes
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. — Declaration of Independence · 1776The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. — Thomas Jefferson · 1774And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. — John F. Kennedy · 1961Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense,—nonsense upon stilts. — Jeremy Bentham · 1832The slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and to the rights of men. — David Hartley (the Younger) · 1776Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion. — William Lloyd Garrison · 1853All 7 quotes →
Equality4 quotes
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. — Declaration of Independence · 1776I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of human rights. — Desmond Tutu · 1985Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. — Honore de Balzac · 1834Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatever. — Joseph Priestley · 1768
Freedom2 quotes
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. — Declaration of Independence · 1776Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790
Politics2 quotes
Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790Surely of all 'rights of man,' this right of the ignorant man to be guided by the wiser, to be, gently or forcibly, held in the true course by him, is the indisputablest. — Thomas Carlyle · 1840
"A fair day's-wages for a fair day's work:" it is as just a demand as Governed men ever made of Governing. It is the everlasting right of man. — Thomas Carlyle · 1843
Oppression1 quote
It takes no compromising to give people their rights... It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression. — Harvey Milk · 1973
Surely of all 'rights of man,' this right of the ignorant man to be guided by the wiser, to be, gently or forcibly, held in the true course by him, is the indisputablest. — Thomas Carlyle · 1840
Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790
The slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and to the rights of men. — David Hartley (the Younger) · 1776
Slavery1 quote
The slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and to the rights of men. — David Hartley (the Younger) · 1776
"A fair day's-wages for a fair day's work:" it is as just a demand as Governed men ever made of Governing. It is the everlasting right of man. — Thomas Carlyle · 1843