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Rights Quotes

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Rights Quotes

“The founders understood that democracy would inevitably evolve into a system of legalized plunder unless the plundered were given numerous escape routes and constitutional protections such as the separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, election of senators by state legislators, the electoral college, no income taxation, most governmental functions performed at the state and local levels, and myriad other constitutional limitations on the powers of the central government.”

“Peace should be understood in a human way - in a broad social, political and economic way. Peace is threatened by unjust economic, social and political order, absence of democracy, environmental degradation and absence of human rights.”

Way Should Humans Political Order Social Democracy Rights Economic Understood Environmental Human Rights Absence Broads Threatened Unjust Degradation Environmental Degradation

Book:Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

Source: Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

“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.”

“His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

“Our Founding Fathers well understood that concentrated power is the enemy of liberty and the rights of man. They knew that the American experiment in individual liberty, free enterprise and republican self-government could succeed only if power were widely distributed. And since in any society social and political power flow from economic power, they saw that wealth and property would have to be widely distributed among the people of the country. The truth of this insight is immediately apparent.”

“By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. Now in this sense I affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.”

Men Persons Rights Atheism Subjects Becoming Degrees Understood Guilt Positive Atheism Employed Discretion Liable Censure Incurring Omitting

Book:An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness

“I suppose the half-breeds in Manitoba, in 1870, did not fight for two hundred forty acres of land, but it is to be understood there were two societies who treated together. One was small, but in its smallness it had its rights. The other was great, but in its greatness it had no greater rights than the rights of the small, because the right is the same for everyone.”

Two Together Fighting Half Greater Rights Land Greatness Understood Hundred Treated Forty Acres Smallness

Author:Louis Riel

“The growth of entrepreneurial classes throughout the world is an asset in the promotion of human rights and individual liberty, and it should be understood and used as such. Yet peace is the first and most important condition for continued prosperity and freedom. America's military power must be secure because the United States is the only guarantor of global peace and stability. The current neglect of America's armed forces threatens its ability to maintain peace.”

“The whole reason for the success of Dr. King's civil-rights movement was that it was not a movement for itself. The civil-rights movement understood very clearly, and stated very beautifully, that it was a question of humanism, not a sectarian movement at all.”

Reason Whole Rights Movement Kings Understood Humanism Civil Rights Drs Civil Rights Movement Very Beautiful

Book:Christopher Hitchens: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations

Source: Christopher Hitchens: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations

“The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own. I have found the anti-slavery cause to be ... the school in which human rights are more fully investigated and better understood and taught than in any other.”

Humans School Found Causes Understanding My Own Rights Taught Understood Slavery Slave Human Rights Civil Rights Investigation Anti Slavery

Author:Angelina Grimke

“I am persuaded that the rights of woman, like the rights of slaves, need only be examined to be understood and asserted.”

Needs Rights Understood Slave Womens Rights

Book:Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker

Source: Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker

“Our founders understood that divine authority was necessary in order to establish a ground on which the weak, the defenseless, the powerless, the poor and the wretched would be able to stand, in the face of every human power whatsoever, and demand respect for their human rights and dignity.”

Humans Would Be Able Faces Order Poor Rights Divine Demand Authority Understood Dignity Weak Human Rights Founders Powerless Wretched Defenseless Human Power

Author:Alan Keyes

“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

“Thomas Jefferson understood the greater purpose of the liberty that our Founding Fathers sought during the creation of our Nation. Although it was against the British that the colonists fought for political rights, the true source of the rights of man was clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote that all humans are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . . . It was self-evident to him that denying these rights was wrong and that he and others must struggle to win what was theirs.”

“Madison understood that if you want to protect rights from government abuse, you would be wise not to give government the power in the first place that can be used to abuse rights. That is a lesson we have forgotten. As we have asked government to do more and more for us, we have forgotten that a government big enough to give us everything we want will be powerful enough to take everything we have.”

Ifs Want Giving Firsts Enough Bigs Government Would Be Used Powerful Wise Rights Lessons Protect Understood Abuse Forgotten Being Wise Madison

Author:Roger Pilon