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Rights Quotes

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Rights Quotes

“One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed.”

“The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless... From the conclusion of this war we shall be going downhill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to affect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.”

People Thinking May Made War Moments Spirit Forget Liberty Support Rights Forgotten Dues Conclusion Making Money Faculty Sole Rulers Resorts Careless Revive Shackles Uniting Disregarded

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“It is undeniably easier to ignore the hardships of those who are too weak to demand their rights than to respond sensitively to their needs. To care is to accept responsibility, to dare to act in accordance with the dictum that the ruler is the strength of the helpless.”

Needs Care Responsibility Accepting Rights Easier Demand Weak Dare Hardship Rulers Helpless

Author:Aung San Suu Kyi

“The safest way for a state is to lay down the rule that religion is comprised solely in the exercise of charity and justice, and that the rights of rulers in sacred, no less than in secular matters, should merely have to do with actions, but that every man should think what he likes and say what he thinks.”

Thinking Men Way Should Matter States Action Justice Rights Exercise Sacred Lays Charity Every Man Likes Rulers Secular

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The source of the government's authority is “the consent of the governed.” This means that the government is not the ruler, but the servant or agent of the citizens; it means that the government as such has no rights except the rights delegated to it by the citizens for a specific purpose.”

Mean Government Purpose Rights Source Citizens Authority Agents Servant Rulers Consent Delegation Consent Of The Governed

Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

“In proportion as the mass of citizens who possess political rights increases, and the number of elected ruler's increases, the actual power is concentrated and becomes the monopoly of a smaller and smaller group of individuals.”

Political Individual Numbers Rights Groups Citizens Mass Increase Proportion Rulers Monopoly Political Rights

Author:Paul Lafargue

“Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.”

“The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny. . . . In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges.”

“The modern State exists not to protect our rights but to do us good or make us good - anyway, to do something to us or to make us something. Hence the new name 'leaders' for those who were once 'rulers'. We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic animals. There is nothing left of which we can say to them, 'Mind your own business.' Our whole lives are their business.”

Mind States Whole Names Left Animal Leader Rights Modern Subjects Protect Whole Life Rulers Pupils Own Business Mind Your Own Business Mind Your Own

Author:C. S. Lewis

“[A ruler is merely] the trustee of the rights of other men and he must always stand in dread of having in some way violated these rights.”

Men Way Rights Dread Rulers Trustees

Author:Immanuel Kant

“I think you have to repudiate torture and I think you have to end what's going on at Guantanamo and you have to live up to American values. Basically you restore - what the American dream brought to the world stage was respect for the individual and the idea that people aren't pawns that rulers can push around but they have rights.”

People Thinking World Ideas Ends Dream Values Individual Rights Stage Torture American Dream Rulers Pawns American Values Guantanamo

Author:Wesley Clark

“The origin of all civil government, justly established, must be a voluntary compact, between the rulers and the ruled; and must be liable to such limitations, as are necessary for the security of the absolute rights of the latter; for what original title can any man or set of men have, to govern others, except their own consent?”

Men Government Rights Security Absolutes Originals Limitation Titles Latter Rulers Consent Liable Compact

Book:The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc

Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc

“Dictatorship nations are outlaws. Any free nation had the right to invade Nazi Germany and, today, has the right to invade Soviet Russia, Cuba, or any other slave pen. Whether a free nation chooses to do so or not is a matter of its own self-interest, not of respect for the nonexistent 'rights' of gang rulers. It is not a free nation's duty to liberate other nations at the price of self-sacrifice, but a free nation has the right to do it, when and if it so chooses.”

Ifs Self Matter Today Nations Interest Rights Sacrifice Duty Slave Russia Germany Pens Soviet Rulers Dictatorship Nazi Gang Self Interest Cuba Self Sacrifice Outlaw Nazi Germany Soviet Russia

Author:Ayn Rand