Kendrick Lamar
Rapper, Songwriter
"My rights, my wrongs, I write ‘til I’m right with God."
Rights quotes
Rights
4.2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Che Guevara
Revolutionary, Guerrilla Leader
"Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men - how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom?"
Angela Davis
Political Activist, Scholar
"Justice is indivisible. You can't decide who gets civil rights and who doesn't."
Indira Gandhi
Politician
"People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights."
Antonin Scalia
Judge
"A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless."
Quote collection
Rights quotes (page 1 of 210)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker."
Read quote
241 likes
"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges..."
Read quote
238 likes
"I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."
Read quote
237 likes
"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can."
Read quote
203 likes
"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down."
Read quote
203 likes
"When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state"
Read quote
197 likes
"We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties."
Read quote
196 likes
"We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."
Read quote
195 likes
"Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
Read quote
185 likes
"World War II was fought for the abolition of racial exclusiveness, equality of nations and the integrity of their territories, liberation of enslaved nations and restoration of their sovereign rights, the right of every nation to arrange its affairs as it wishes, economic aid to nations that have suffered and assistance to them in attaining their material welfare, restoration of democratic liberties, and destruction of the Hitlerite regime."
Read quote
183 likes
"Equal rights for all, special privileges for none"
Read quote
168 likes
"The great majority of us are Muslims. We follow the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (may peace be upon him). We are members of the brotherhood of Islam in which all are equal in rights, dignity and self-respect. Consequently, we have a special and a very deep sense of unity. But make no mistake: Pakistan is not a theocracy or anything like it."
Read quote
159 likes
"Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights."
Read quote
157 likes
"Mr. President how long must women wait to get their liberty? Let us have the rights we deserve."
Read quote
156 likes
"The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so."
Read quote
148 likes
"I'd personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it."
Read quote
143 likes
"We can not fight for our rights and our history as well as future until we are armed with weapons of criticism and dedicated consciousness."
Read quote
141 likes
"Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society."
Read quote
135 likes
"The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."
Read quote
134 likes
"The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy."
Read quote
132 likes