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Fundamentals Quotes

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Fundamentals Quotes

“In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.”

Years Humans Children Country Evil Human Beings Rights Fundamentals South Human Rights Divided Denied South Africa Apartheid Classification

Author:Desmond Tutu

“The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education.”

Firsts Use Moving Humanity Natural Justice Rights Labor Organization Thirds Fundamentals Human Rights Soil Fourth Fifth Fundamental Rights

Author:Albert Schweitzer

“Thus, for followers of Christ, calling neutralizes the fundamental position of choice in modern life. “I have chosen you,” Jesus said, “you have not chosen me.” We are not our own; we have been bought with a price. We have no rights, only responsibilities. Following Christ is not our initiative, merely our response, in obedience. Nothing works better to debunk the pretensions of choice than a conviction of calling. Once we have been called, we literally “have no choice.”

“In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 1948) in most solemn form, the dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings; and as a consequence there is proclaimed, as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in search for truth and in the attainment of moral good and of justice, and also the right to a dignified life.”

“The act of taking my own life is not something that I do without a lot of thought. I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and to a place where there is no self, only calm. Love always, Wendy.”

“The international community cannot accept that whole communities are marginalized because of the color of their skin. People of African descent are among those most affected by racism. Too often, they face denial of basic rights such as access to quality health services and education. Such fundamental wrongs have a long and terrible history.”

“We must recognize the fundamental rights of man. There can be no true national life in our democracy unless we give unqualified recognition to freedom of religious worship and freedom of education.”

Men Giving Religious Democracy Rights Worship Fundamentals Recognition Patriotic Unqualified Fundamental Rights

Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt

“No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.”

Long Doe Existence Accepting Democracy Rights Fundamentals Recognition Minorities

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7

“The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights-for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”

“The fight against drug trafficking is a wildfire that threatens to consume those fundamental rights of the individual deliberately enshrined in our Constitution.”

War Fighting Individual Rights Drug Constitution Fundamentals Users Trafficking Wildfires Fundamental Rights Drug Trafficking

Author:Juan Guerrero Burciaga

“If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America - even those designated as ‘unlawful enemy combatants.’ If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles.”

“We physicians have focused on the nuclear threat as the singular issue of our era. We are not indifferent to other human rights and hard-won civil liberties. But first we must be able to bequeath to our children the most fundamental of all rights, which preconditions all others; the right to survival.”

Firsts Humans Children Hard Able Liberty Issues Rights Survival Our Children Fundamentals Threat Human Rights Focused Nuclear Eras Indifferent Physicians Civil Liberties Disarmament

Author:Bernard Lown

“When the function of libraries is put in terms of their contributions to the community, people see their centrality. The challenge to us is to continue to help them see it in those terms to describe our larger purposes. We must assert that libraries are central to the quality of life in our society; that libraries have a direct role in preserving democratic freedoms. Free access to information and the opportunity of every individual to improve his or her mind, employment prospects, and lifestyle are fundamental rights in our society.”

“I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be a usurpation hardly worth fighting for.”

Source: The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Supplementary volume

“The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.”

Government Rights Republican Fundamentals Definitions Articles Suffrage Republican Government

Book:The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States

Source: The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States

“In fundamental theory socialism and democracy are almost if not quite one and the same. They both rest at bottom upon the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members. Men as communities are supreme over men as individuals. Limits of wisdom and convenience to the public control there may be: limits of principle there are, upon strict analysis, none.”

Source: The papers of Woodrow Wilson

“Bill Maher is right to condemn religious practices that violate fundamental human rights. Religious communities must do more to counter extremist interpretations of their faith. But failing to recognize that religion is embedded in culture — and making a blanket judgment about the world’s second largest religion — is simply bigotry.”

“What are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights.”

Order Social Liberty Rights Conflict Fundamentals Discrimination Inequality Reform Social Reform Social Systems Fundamental Rights Social Inequality

Author:B. R. Ambedkar

“Law matters, because it keeps us safe, because it protects our most fundamental rights and freedoms, and because it is the foundation of our democracy.”

Matter Law Democracy Rights Protect Safe Foundation Fundamentals Rights And Freedoms Fundamental Rights

Author:Elena Kagan

“The lessons of religious toleration - a toleration which recognizes complete liberty of human thought, liberty of conscience - is one which, by precept and example, must be inculcated in the hearts and minds of all Americans if the institutions of our democracy are to be maintained and perpetuated. We must recognize the fundamental rights of man. There can be no true national life in our democracy unless we give unqualified recognition to freedom of religious worship and freedom of education.”

“Health care is not a privilege. It's a right. It's a right as fundamental as civil rights. It's a right as fundamental as giving every child a chance to get a public education.”

Giving Children Care Chance Rights Fundamentals Privilege Civil Rights Health Care Public Education

Author:Rod Blagojevich

“To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.”

Would Be Moral Teacher Rights Teaching Morality Fundamentals Casts Protected Homosexuality Homosexual Gay Rights

Author:Warren E. Burger

“It just seems so fundamental to me. I'm able to marry the person I wanted to marry. That's the fundamental human imperative. Those of us who have been lucky enough should expand these rights to others.”

Should Humans Persons Has Beens Enough Seems Able Wanted Rights Lucky Fundamentals Imperatives

Author:Chelsea Clinton

“We’ve always been involved with issues that deal with the fundamental human rights of people, whether that means the right to political freedom or the right to breathe air that’s clean.”

People Humans Mean Political Deals Issues Rights Air Involved Fundamentals Clean Human Rights Breathe Political Freedom

Author:Mary Travers