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Rights Quotes

“The stories from Iran's present and past are reminders that freedom, democracy and human rights, or fundamentalism, fascism and terrorism are not geographically and culturally determined, but universal.”

Humans Stories Past Democracy Rights Universal Human Rights Terrorism Determined Iran Fascism Fundamentalism Reminders Democracy And Human Rights

Author:Azar Nafisi

“May it not be asked of every intelligent friend to the liberties of his country, whether the power exercised in such an act as this ought not to produce great and universal alarm? Whether a rigid execution of such an act, in time past, would not have repressed that information and communication among the people which is indispensable to the just exercise of their electoral rights? And whether such an act, if made perpetual, and enforced with rigor, would not, in time to come, either destroy our free system of government, or prepare a convulsion that might prove equally fatal to it?”

Source: The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

“Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White is remarkable for its truth-telling about two important issues concerning Alabama's past and present: the civil rights movement and immigration. These stories, rendered through the words and eyes of a young Latina girl who came from Argentina to Marion, Alabama, are made vivid and immediate through Weaver's highly accessible drawings and dialogue. This is a book-about maturation, family, education, and social change-every schoolchild, parent, and citizen should experience.”

“It does so happen to be the case that if the freedom of the people of this country - and especially the rights of trade unionists - if those precious things in the past had been left to the good sense and fairmindedness of judges, we would have precious few freedoms in this country.”

People Ifs Doe Country Happens Past Left Cases Rights Judging Trade Good Sense Precious Things

Author:Michael Foot

“A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain as free as possible from the control of the past. A free culture is not a culture without property, just as a free market is not a market in which everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a "permission culture" -- a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past.”

Doe Past Culture Powerful Support Rights Protect Intellectual Opposites Property Creator Guarantees Permission Free Market Property Rights Innovators Guarantees That Intellectual Property

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“Our faith in democracy, personal freedoms and human 'rights', and the other comforting prescriptions of the humanist liberal credo stem from the supremacy of maritime over territorial power. Pragmatists may deplore this as crude determinism, as another vain attempt to construct a general theory of history. They should reflect on the sort of political philosophy and structures we might now adhere to had the Habsburgs, Bourbons, Bonaparte, Hitler, Stalin or his heirs prevailed in the titanic world struggles of the past four centuries.”

Source: Maritime Supremacy & the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World

“Hurry, drive and bustle ... Everybody looking out for number one, and caring little who jostled past, if their rights were not infringed.”

Ifs Littles Past Numbers Rights Caring Bustle

Book:Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio ; And, Shadows and Sunbeams

Source: Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio ; And, Shadows and Sunbeams

“one of the great weaknesses of the women's rights movement over the past two hundred years has been the tendency of its history to disappear, so that it must be resurrected for each new generation.”

Years Has Beens Two Past Rights Generations Movement Weakness Hundred Disappear Tendencies Womens Rights Over The Past New Generation

Author:Susan Jacoby

“In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here's the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven't lynched somebody then you can't be called a racist. If you're not a bloodsucking monster, then you can't be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters.”

People Ifs Mean Able America Past Language White Gone Rights Havens Changed Racism Monsters Civil Rights Eras Manifestation Racist

Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“This bill attempts to make sure that President Clinton is not allowed to do by Executive Order what Congress has declined to enact in the past two congressional sessions namely, to treat homosexuals as a special class protected under various titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

“There is one lesson from the past, in particular, that we cannot afford to ignore: You cannot make progress on gender equality or broader human development, without safeguarding women's reproductive health and rights.”

“For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp.”

Needs Years War Lasts Past Political Fantasy Path Rights Generations Baby Approach Civil Rights Righteousness Vietnam Exit Crusades Ramp Baby Boom

Author:Joe Klein

“The Saudis have never shown any respect for human rights, either now or in the past. Even a petty burglar faces having one of his hands chopped off. The liberal press in America prefers to ignore all this, although they don't hesitate to blacken the reputation of Iran.”

Humans Hands America Past Faces Rights Presses Human Rights Reputation Iran Petty Saudis Burglars

Author:Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

“As the House is designed to provide a reflection of the mood of the moment, the Senate is meant to reflect the continuity of the past--to preserve the delicate balance of justice between the majority's whims and the minority's rights.”

Moments Government Past House Politics Justice Rights Balance Reflection Majority Equality Mood Preserves Minorities Senate Delicate Continuity Whim

Author:Lyndon B. Johnson

“They don't worship at the altar of forced busing and mandatory quotas. They don't believe you can remedy past discrimination by mandating new discrimination. (Defending his nominees for Civil Rights Commission)”

Believe Past Rights Worship Don't Believe Discrimination Civil Rights Remedy Altars Believe You Can Quota

Author:Ronald Reagan

“I think art can really serve to inspire a movement - and, of course, it has in the past. The Civil Rights movement wouldn't have the same resonance without the songs from everyone from Pete Seeger to Odetta to James Brown.”

Thinking Art Past Song Courses Rights Movement Inspire Civil Rights Brown Civil Rights Movement Resonance

Author:Saul Williams

“I bring my past I bring my future I bring my rights and I bring my song I stand atop the Hacienda and shout We belong Here. We belong.”

Past Song Rights My Future My Past

Book:Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems

Source: Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems

“And to me, that's why the civil rights era is about the future, not about the past, because it's great lessons of how citizens can organize to call on the patriotic heritage of the country to tackle some of our most intractable problems and we need to do that again.”

Needs Country Problem Past Rights Citizens Lessons Civil Rights Eras Patriotic Heritage Organize

Author:Taylor Branch

“With so many of our fundamental rights hanging in the balance, it is not good enough to simply roll the dice, hoping a nominee has changed his past views. It's not good enough to think, 'This is the best we can expect from this president'.”

Thinking Enough Past President Views Rights Changed Balance Fundamentals Good Enough Not Good Enough Dice Fundamental Rights

Author:Barbara Boxer

“The sad and tragic fact is that the civil rights movement, despite its honorable and courageous past, has over the years degenerated into a demagogic hustle, promoting the mindless racism they once fought against.”

Years Facts Past Rights Movement Racism Civil Rights Despite Tragic Courageous Honorable Promoting Civil Rights Movement Hustle Mindless

Author:Thomas Sowell

“The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 represented precisely such a hope - that America had learned from its past and acted to secure a better tomorrow.”

America Past Rights Tomorrow Civil Rights Secure Passages Better Tomorrow Civil Rights Act Civil Rights Act Of 1964

Author:Aberjhani

“We need to invade Michigan and rebuild the state from the ground up. We will be greeted as liberators, we have clear supply lines, and we can easily rebuild the auto industry with the kind of money we spend on other countries we invade. Hell, our new Secretary of State, Hillary of Clinton, spent the better part of the past year fighting for the rights of average folks from Michigan, so think of the good will we have with the public. This is very doable. Just tell Congress we will give KBR no-bid contracts to fix Detroit.”

“I think that compared to other politicians who have been put in jail in the past, compared to the human-rights activists in history who have had to face political prosecution, the activists in Hong Kong nowadays are already quite lucky compared to that.”

Thinking Humans Has Beens Past Faces Political Rights Politician Lucky Human Rights Jail Activist Hong Kong Prosecution

Author:Joshua Wong