“As Enlightenment philosophers and scholars consciously adopted the methods of science to establish such abstract concepts as rights, liberty, and justice, successive generations have become schooled in thinking of these abstractions as applied to others in matrices-like mental rotations.” ThinkingJusticeLibertyRightsGenerationsEnlightenmentConceptsMethodPhilosopherAbstractScholarAbstractionAdoptedSchooledLiberty And JusticeRotation Author:Michael Shermer
“If succeeding generations of Americans don't understand the concepts of justice, individual rights, free enterprise, capitalism, sovereignty or national security, there can be no guarantee that those concepts - or others like them - will continue.” IfsIndividualJusticeRightsGenerationsSecuritySucceedConceptsCapitalismGuaranteesEnterpriseNational SecuritySovereigntyGuarantees ThatFree EnterpriseIndividual Rights Author:George Nethercutt
“I believe it is wrong to undermine public safety, and indeed public confidence in the concept of human rights, by allowing highly dangerous criminals and terrorists to trump the rights of the people of Britain to live in security and peace.” PeopleBelieveHumansI BelieveRightsSecurityDangerousTrumpConceptsSafetyHuman RightsCriminalsTerroristBritainAllowingPublic Safety Author:David Cameron
“We live in the age of "Everything Has Rights." Now, I'm not denying that the concept of rights is valid, but I wonder whatever happened to obligations? One rarely hears the term anymore. Indeed, have you ever heard of a "human obligations movement?" The very ideal that holds a democracy together--the willingness to make personal sacrifice for the common good--is going quickly by the wayside.” HumansAgeTogetherTermCommonResponsibilityWonderDemocracyRightsHappenedHeardSacrificeMovementConceptsIdealsObligationWillingnessCommon GoodPersonal Sacrifice Author:John Rosemond
“The concept of justice I take to be defined, then, by the role of its principles in assigning rights and duties and in defining the appropriate division of social advantages. A conception of justice is an interpretation of this role.” SocialJusticePrinciplesRolesRightsDutyConceptsAdvantageDefinedAppropriateInterpretationDivisionConceptionDefiningRights And Duties Book:A Theory of Justice Source: A Theory of Justice
“Many Americans who supported the initial thrust of civil rights, as represented by the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later felt betrayed as the original concept of equal individual opportunity evolved toward the concept of equal group results.” OpportunityIndividualFeltDecisionResultsRightsGroupsEqualConceptsOriginalsCivil RightsBoardsBrownBetrayedInitialsThrustCivil Rights ActBoard Of EducationCivil Rights Act Of 1964 Author:Thomas Sowell
“Well, maybe there are one or two things about the double jeopardy concept that are overlooked. I could be charged with violating my probation. I could be charged for illegal possession of a firearm or violating his civil rights if I did kill him. But when you're making a movie, there's only so much that you can do. I know that some people, while thoroughly enjoying it, have said, It's a little bit implausible. But it's such great fun.” PeopleIfsKnowsWellsLittlesSaidTwoFunBitsEnjoyCan DoRightsLittle BitConceptsPossessionCivil RightsTwo ThingsIllegalFirearmsOverlookedJeopardyProbation Author:Ashley Judd
“The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully - and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it. But this is the concept to which we owe our lives - the concept which made it possible for us to bring into reality everything of value that any of us did or will achieve or experience.” ThinkingMenYearsMadeTwoCountryEnoughRealityPoliticalValuesIndividualOur LivesRightsAchieveHundredConceptsMade ItOther CountriesFeatsIndividual RightsProdigiousPolitical Thinking Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
“Human rights are an aspect of natural law, a consequence of the way the universe works, as solid and as real as photons or the concept of pi. The idea of self- ownership is the equivalent of Pythagoras' theorem, of evolution by natural selection, of general relativity, and of quantum theory. Before humankind discovered any of these, it suffered, to varying degrees, in misery and ignorance.” WayHumansIdeasRealSelfLawUniverseNaturalRightsIgnoranceTheoryEvolutionDegreesConceptsConsequenceAspectMiseryHuman RightsHumankindQuantumOwnershipSelectionRelativityNatural SelectionNatural LawTheoremsQuantum TheoryPhotonsGeneral RelativitySelf Ownership Author:L. Neil Smith
“Solidarity is learned through 'contact' rather than 'concepts.' Students in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed.” ThinkingWorldFeelsShouldRealitySufferingCoursesRightsThis WorldStudentsJudgingConceptsContactPerceiveSolidarityOppressedFormationDisadvantaged Author:Peter Hans Kolvenbach
“In my judgment the people of no nation can lose their liberty so long as a Bill of Rights like ours survives and its basic purposes are conscientiously interpreted, enforced and respected so as to afford continuous protection against old, as well as new, devices and practices which might thwart those purposes. I fear to see the consequences of the Court's practice of substituting its own concepts of decency and fundamental justice for the language of the Bill of Rights as its point of departure in interpreting and enforcing that Bill of Rights.” PeopleWellsLongMightLawPurposeLanguageNationsLosesJusticeLibertyPracticeRightsJudgmentConceptsConsequenceConstitutionFundamentalsBillsCourtProtectionDevicesDecencyDepartureBill Of RightsInterpreting Author:Hugo Black
“All beings want to live in peace and happiness, undisturbed. Therefore the concept of human rights is universal.” WantHumansRightsConceptsUniversalHuman RightsPeace And Happiness Author:Dalai Lama
“The 16th Amendment corroded the American concept of natural rights; ultimately reduced the American citizen to a status of subject, so much so that he is not aware of it; enhanced Executive power to the point of reducing Congress to innocuity; and enabled the central government to bribe the states, once independent units, into subservience. No kingship in the history of the world ever exercised more power than our Presidency, or had more of the people's wealth at its disposal.” PeopleWorldStatesGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsNaturalWealthRightsSubjectsCitizensConceptsIndependentCongressExecutivesAmendmentsUnitsPresidencyWorld HistoryReducingAmerican CitizensBribeNatural RightsExecutive PowerCentral GovernmentSubservienceKingship Book:Income Tax: Root of All Evil Source: Income Tax: Root of All Evil
“The religious wars showed that the Christian faith was no longer Europe's unifying force. A new common ground was needed, and it was found in reason, which is something that is shared by all of mankind. This was one of the roots of the Enlightenment and its concept of universal human rights.” HumansWarReasonChristianFoundForceReligiousCommonRightsMankindNeededEnlightenmentConceptsEuropeRootsUniversalHuman RightsChristian FaithCommon GroundUnifyingReligious Wars Author:Walter Kasper
“The US and Israel have demanded further that Palestinians not only recognize Israel's rights as a state in the international system, but that they also recognize Israel's abstract right to exist, a concept that has no place in international law or diplomacy, and a right claimed by no one. In effect, the US and Israel are demanding that Palestinians . . . formally accept the legitimacy of their expulsion from their own land. They cannot be expected to accept that, just as Mexico does not grant the US the right to exist on half of Mexico's territory, gained by conquest.” DoeStatesLawHalfAcceptingRightsLandEffectsConceptsInternationalIsraelExpectedAbstractGrantsTerritoryMexicoPalestinianConquestDiplomacyLegitimacyInternational LawExpulsion Author:Noam Chomsky
“There are those who argue that the concept of human rights is not applicable to all cultures. We in the National League for Democracy believe that human rights are of universal relevance. But even those who do not believe in human rights must certainly agree that the rule of law is most important. Without the rule of law there can be no peace.” BelieveHumansImportantLawCultureDemocracyRightsConceptsUniversalAgreeHuman RightsArguingLeagueRelevanceRule Of Law Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“If a man speculates on what 'society' should do for the poor, he accepts thereby the collectivist premise that men's lives belong to society and that he, as a member of society, has the right to dispose of them...that psychological confession reveals the enormity of the extent to which altruism erodes men's capacity to grasp the concept of rights or the value of an individual life.” IfsMenShouldValuesIndividualPoorAcceptingRightsMembersConceptsCapacityPsychologicalConfessionAltruismPremisesErodeIndividual Life Author:Ayn Rand
“There are unprecedented numbers of movements for human rights and freedoms. But the dominant worldviews in academia, like materialism and naturalism, deny the reality of freedom, reducing humans to robots. So where does the concept of human rights come from?” HumansDoeRealityNumbersRightsMovementConceptsHuman RightsDenyMaterialismDominantRobotsReducingWorldviewUnprecedentedAcademiaNaturalismRights And Freedoms Author:Nancy Pearcey
“The foundations of liberty are private property and the rule of law; this system guarantees the fewest possible forms of injustice, produces the greatest material and cultural progress, most effectively stems violence and provides the greatest respect for human rights. According to this concept of liberalism, freedom is a single, unified concept. Political and economic liberties are as inseparable as the two sides of a medal.” HumansTwoFormLawPoliticalSidesLibertyRightsProgressViolenceEconomicProduceMaterialsConceptsFoundationPropertyInjusticeHuman RightsLiberalismGuaranteesStemMedalRule Of LawInseparableTwo SidesPrivate PropertyUnified Author:Mario Vargas Llosa
“It is not up to us to particularize, but rather to deduce that the concepts of human rights originated from the divine influence because, as far as we are concerned, we are compelled to recognize our slow individual evolution from fierce selfishness toward a universal love, from the iniquity toward true justice.” HumansIndividualJusticeRightsInfluenceDivineEvolutionConceptsConcernedUniversalHuman RightsSelfishnessFierceCompelledIniquityUniversal LoveTrue Justice Author:Chico Xavier
“Often people who already had an interest in human rights work. What I did notice with all of them, even the people who professed to be interested in human rights, was that activism was somewhat a concept in their mind - a symbolic flag on the quad or something to show how many people were starving in the world. But once they saw their efforts connected to a person, I did see a change.” PeopleWorldMindHumansPersonsShowsInterestEffortSawsRightsConceptsHuman RightsConnectedActivismFlagsStarvingSymbolicQuads Author:Adam Braver
“The biggest obstacle in interacting with China is the difference in perspectives about basic values. These include issues such as human rights, the concept of law and constitution.” HumansLawValuesDifferencesIssuesRightsPerspectiveConceptsConstitutionHuman RightsObstaclesChinaInteractingBiggest Obstacles Author:Ai Weiwei