Rights Quotes

“This is what women want: to be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved.”
― Isabel Allende, The Soul of a Woman

“The word suffrage has nothing to do with suffering. It's from the Latin 'suffragium' and it's about having a vote, a voice, the right to participate in the making of decisions.
And isn't that the same struggle (which does have to do with suffering) that we are facing in this country? That all adults should have a vote, a voice, the right to participate in the making of decisions?
Universal Suffrage. What Extreme Conditions will it take for us to forge the path to it?”
― Shellen Lubin

“I’m claiming the right to be
unhappy.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Was it a poor decision for Kelly to walk home in dark? Teenagers routinely make poor decisions. Does that justify them being hurt, or assaulted, or raped? No it does not. A person should be able to walk home, even in the dark, even through an isolated field, and arrive home safely.”
― Megan Goldin, The Night Swim

“But I'll tell you what we will never be deficient of. LOVE. We love art and beauty. We love new ideas and pushing boundaries. We love fighting against corruption. We love redefining archaic rules. We love men, and women, and men who dress like women, and women who dress like men. We love tops and bottoms, and top hats, especially when worn by Marlene Dietrich, But most of all, we love each other. We care for each other. We are brothers and sisters, mentors and students, and together we are limitless and whole. The most important four-letter word in our history will always be LOVE. That's what we are fighting for. That's who we are. Love is our legacy.”
― Abdi Nazemian, The Chandler Legacies

“Be more receptive of your responsibility than you are of your rights.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Pavlov formulated his findings into a general rule in which the speed of learning positively correlated with quiet isolation. The totalitarians have followed this rule. They know they can condition their political victims most quickly if they are kept in isolation. In the totalitarian technique of thought control, the same isolation applied to the individual is applied also to the groups of people. This is the reason the civilian populations of the totalitarian countries are not permitted to travel freely and are kept away from mental and political contamination. It is the reason, to, for the solitary confinement cell and the prison camp.”
― Joost A.M. Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing

“The expansion of victims' rights ultimately made formal what had always been true: Some victims are more protected and valued than others.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

“They came for my neighbour and I stayed silent because it wasn't me they looked for. Then they came for me and all I heard was silence...”
― Joshua Ayala-Arias

“Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. More simply, the majority cannot vote away the natural rights of the minority. Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
― Edward Snowden, Permanent Record

“During this period, [Frederick] Douglass became more than just an orator or a journalist: he became a prophet of a United States who embodied the courage of its convictions, a country that, as Douglass put it, "shall not brand the Declaration of Independence as a lie." At the time, it was horror to the white South and a foolish dream to much of the white North. Today Douglass's vision of America is so pervasive that even its strongest opponents pretend to believe in it: an America that actually recognizes that all are created equal, where the rights of citizenship are not abridged on the basis of accidents of birth.”
― Adam Serwer, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

“For example, under the Articles of Confederation, the national government could not tax people directly, as we do today, but must ask for money from the states, which could raise it however they wanted.”
― Christopher Collier, Creating the Constitution: 1787

“Unfortunately, we do not always understand the Bill of Rights as well as we might. Many people seem to think that it guarantees us the right to do almost anything we want. That is not the case; there are limits. For example, the right to free speech does not give us the right to say slanderous things about others, to cry fire in a crowded theater as a joke, or to discuss military secrets with our friends. The right to peaceable assembly does not permit us to gather a crowd of demonstrators in the middle of a busy street. As interpreted by the Supreme Court, the rights of the individuals must be balanced against the needs of the society as a whole.”
― Christopher Collier, Creating the Constitution: 1787

“Freedom is a right only when it sustains and strengthens freedom, not when it seeks to destroy freedom.”
― R. N. Prasher

“IF YOU FIGHT FOR RIGHTS, YOU HAVE TO FIRST BREAK IT AND THEN MAKE IT”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“You can choose to take the Vaccine, or you can choose not to take the Vaccine. The choice is yours, but don’t go around forcing your choices on to others. You have every right to choose what you want, but every right comes with responsibility. You are responsible for your own safety and safety of others. Whatever the outcome is. You should be held accountable for your actions or choices and don’t choose to hate on others for making different choices than the one you made.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“I’m scared every single day, but I know I will never give my education up.”
― Maricla Pannocchia, Letters from Afghanistan

“It is pointless and stupid to protest, if you don’t vote. The only way you can fight corruption, unemployment, equal and human rights . Making sure that you have a good future and good service delivery is through the poll. Make sure you register to vote and make sure that you vote. For a change to happen, it starts by you.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“The justice of nature is a pledge of reciprocal usefulness ... neither to harm one another nor to be harmed … Justice was not a thing in its own right, but [exists] in mutual dealings in whatever places there [is] a pact about neither harming one another nor being harmed. ~ Epicurus”
― Catherine Wilson, How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well

“A great deal of various cultural elements naturally grew from a real need of responding to [mostly] human psychology and biology, with varying degrees of attention to environments, circumstances and chance.

Some solutions, how ever well intentioned - may have an impatient character due to the hardship of those times. Likewise - on the other side, certain modern aspects of society may have developed cultural elements which would not be possible without some disregard for hardship. Hardships, with which the very wellbeing of our biology find itself deeply entangled - depending heavily on balance.

We may recognize that in times of increased patience - come oppurtunity for reflection in hope to encourage greater balance.”
― Monaristw

“We all have a right, but it's what's left that is the worrying problem.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“The safest assumptions that workers can make in the USA is that they do not have the right to a safe workplace and they will not get Disability and Workers Compensation for occupational diseases if they become too sick to work.”
― Steven Magee

“My Right is My Right.
It is not anybody's Grant or Favour or Alms given to me.”
― Annapurna Krishjeev

“Common sense is more important than rights.”
― Robbie J. Farha

“Knowledge is a weapon to defend yourself and your rights.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“Do we have human rights or our rights are limited by those who think they have power over us. Those who think they are richer than us. Those who think they are smarter or wiser than us. Those who think they are more educated or more qualified than us and by those who think they are better than us.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“We were born as a single entity, we will face death on our own, and we must make our way back to the Divine under our own steam. Never give that right and responsibility away to another person, and never take it from another.”
― Donna Goddard, Touched by Love

“RBG: Rights, Bravery & Goodness.”
― Steven Magee

“The world suffers a lot not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of the good people. If you see something unfair raise your voice.”
― Vivek Pandey, The RTI Act 2005 Simplified

“From a humanist perspective, it's the government's job to protect people from each other, not from themselves. The government's sole role is to act as a referee of sorts, to find some kind of balance between an individual's right to control their own life and another person's right to not be exploited or hurt.

(2002 interview in Attitude)”
― Clay Butler