Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [21-40] of 494 Individual Rights quotesIndividual Rights QuotesIndividual Rights Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes I bid him look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself.~ Publius Terentius Afer For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?~ Dante Alighieri I call the mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master [and] receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.~ Woody Allen We believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture.~ American Library Association The USA was founded in the name of democracy, equality and individual freedom, but is failing to deliver the fundamental promise of protecting rights for all.~ Amnesty International Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.~ Susan B. Anthony It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.~ Susan B. Anthony Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.~ Saint Thomas Aquinas To the size of the state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for none of these retain their facility when they are too large.~ Aristotle Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.~ Nancy Astor The use of “religion” as an excuse to repress the freedom of expression and to deny human rights is not confined to any country or time.~ Margaret Atwood Give me chastity and self-restraint, but do not give it yet.~ Saint Augustine I have the right to do whatever I wish with my property. If I own a pile of wood, I can set fire to it even if it is currently nailed together in the shape of a barn. Cigarettes may not be healthy for me in the long run, but I have the freedom to smoke them anyway. Drinking alcohol may or may not have negative side effects, but even if it does, the government has no authority to prohibit you from consuming it, even if it is "in your own best interest." Since when do we let the government decide what is or isn't good for us? What the hell does Congress know about nutrition, anyway? (For that matter, what does Congress know about the Constitution?) If the government can use force whenever something is "in our best interest" then government should force everyone to wake up at 6am every morning for calisthenics in the front yard. Fast food establishments should be torn down and replaced with bars that serve carrot juice and alfalfa sprouts, since - "it's in your best interest." This paternalistic attitude that "the government knows best" and that you are merely a helpless child is insulting and reprehensible. Hitler used the same attitude to persuade the Germans to subjugate themselves to the "Fatherland.~ Michael Badnarik The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.~ Carl Friedrich Bahrdt Nobody can be exactly like me. Even I have trouble doing it.~ Tallulah Bankhead Self-defense is a part of the law of nature; nor can it be denied the community, even against the king himself.~ William Barclay What I'd like to see police do is deal with important issues and not these sorts of victimless crimes when society is riddled with problems.~ Alderman Rodney Barket Thought that is silenced is always rebellious. Majorities, of course, are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.~ Alan Barth If every person has the right to defend -- even by force -- his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right -- its reason for existing, its lawfulness -- is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force -- for the same reason -- cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.~ Frederic Bastiat Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame and danger that their acts would otherwise involve... But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to the other persons to whom it doesn't belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish that law without delay ... No legal plunder; this is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony and logic.~ Frederic Bastiat Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print