Quotes about Rights

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)

Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance.

Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.

Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It does not denial of the divine right of kings; it asserts the divine right of all men.

Every dog is entitled to one bite.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It should be the right of the individual to decide whether he wants to belong to a union.

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.