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Rights Quotes

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Rights Quotes

“In an essay 10 years ago, I pointed out that it is utterly logical for polygamy rights to follow gay rights. After all, if traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as advocates of gay marriage insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one's autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement - the number restriction (two and only two) - is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice.”

“I have already indicated to you the meaning of the word religion, as applied to Islam. The truth is that Islam is not a Church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing, and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth, but as a spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism, and possessing rights and duties as a living factor in that mechanism.”

“Equality, in a social sense, may be divided into that of condition, and that of rights. Equality of condition is incompatible with civilization, and is found only to exist in those communities that are but slightly removed from the savage state. In practice, it can only mean a common misery. Equality of rights is a peculiar feature of democracies. These rights are properly divided into civil and political, though even these definitions are not to be taken as absolute, or as literally exact.”

“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.”

Social Justice Principles Roles Rights Duty Concepts Advantage Defined Appropriate Interpretation Division Conception Defining Rights And Duties

Book:A Theory of Justice

Source: A Theory of Justice

“A human life is defined by its relationship with others: by its duty to its species. In the face of this duty, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are meaningless. What you call individual rights are merely the cultural fantasy of a failed civilization.”

Source: Blade of Tyshalle

“The trouble is, SMers are allowing themselves to be defined by what they are not. We think, "Oh, so many people believe that we're all murderers and rapists, and we have to explain that we're not!" Uh so, a slogan for the gay civil rights movement should be "Normal, Non-threatening and Not After Your Children"?”

People Thinking Should Believe Children Rights Trouble Movement Gay Normal Our Children Civil Rights Defined Your Children Allowing Threatening Murderer Slogans Civil Rights Movement

Author:Laura Antoniou

“Our example - and commitment - to freedom has changed the world. But along with the genius of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights, is the equal genius of our economic system. Our Founding Fathers endeavored to create a moral and just society like no other in history, and out of that grew a moral and just economic system the likes of which the world had never seen. Our freedom, what it means to be an American, has been defined and sustained by the liberating power of the free enterprise system.”

“The social issues outside of football are not as defined as they were earlier, when integration took place and certain rights were legislated. The Civil Rights movement is over. Individuals can buy homes wherever they want, travel first class wherever they want, eat wherever they want.”

Want Firsts Home Certain Individual Social Class Issues Rights Movement Football Civil Rights Defined Integration Social Issues Civil Rights Movement First Class

Author:Jim Brown

“For the first 200 years of our nation's history, corporations were never defined by the courts as persons with free speech rights under the First Amendment. Only in recent years have we witnessed this corporate takeover of our First Amendment, culminating in the Citizens United ruling.”

Years Firsts Persons Nations United Rights Citizens Speech Court Defined Corporate Corporations Amendments Free Speech Ruling First Amendment Takeovers Citizens United

Author:John Bonifaz

“I am a men's liberationist (or "masculist") when men's liberation is defined as equal opportunity and equal responsibility for both sexes. I am a feminist when feminism favors equal opportunities and responsibilities for both sexes. I oppose both movements when either says our sex is THE oppressed sex, therefore, "we deserve rights." That's not gender liberation but gender entitlement. Ultimately, I am in favor of neither a women's movement nor a men's movement but a gender transition movement.”

Men Opportunity Sex Responsibility Rights Feminism Movement Equal Deserve Feminist Gender Favors Defined Liberation Transition Oppressed Entitlement Equal Opportunity

Book:The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex

Source: The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex

“Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us - by obligations, not by rights. Noblesse oblige. 'To live as one likes is plebeian; the noble man aspires to order and law.'”

Men Law Political Order Politics Rights Demand Noble Likes Obligation Defined Aspire Nobility Noble Man Plebeians Noblesse Oblige

Book:the Revolt of the Masses

Source: the Revolt of the Masses

“The original meaning of the word tact referred to the sense of touch (as in 'tactile'), and came to mean skill in dealing with persons or sensitive situations. Tact is defined as: 'intuitive perception, especially a quick and fine perception of what is fit and proper and right.' It alludes to one's ability to conduct delicate negotiations and personal matters in a way that recognizes mutual rights, and yet leads to a harmonious solution.”

“Human rights will be a powerful force for the transformation of reality when they are not simply understood as externally defined norms of behavior but are lived as the spontaneous manifestation of internalized values.”

Humans Reality Values Force Powerful Rights Behavior Understood Transformation Human Rights Defined Manifestation Spontaneous Norm

Author:Daisaku Ikeda