Rights quotes

Rights

4.2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

4.2K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside rights — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Rights quotes (page 36 of 210)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Napoleon Bonaparte Military Leader, Emperor
Rights

"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. Men are moved by only two mechanisms: fear and self-interest. Victory belongs to the most persevering."

Read quote 5 likes
Malcolm X Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Rights

"They came up with a civil rights bill in 1964, supposedly to solve our problem, and after the bill was signed, three civil rights workers were murdered in cold blood. And the FBI head, Hoover, admits that they know who did it, they've known ever since it happened, and they've done nothing about it. Civil rights bill down the drain."

Read quote 5 likes
Nelson Mandela Political Leader
Rights

"There's one place where (Fidel Castro’s) Cuba stands out head and shoulders above the rest – that is in its love for human rights and liberty!"

Read quote 5 likes
Geoffrey Miller Psychologist, Author
Rights

"Scientific theories never dictate human values, but they can often cast new light on ethical issues. From a sexual selection viewpoint, moral philosophy and political theory have mostly been attempts to shift male human sexual competitiveness from physical violence to the peaceful accumulation of wealth and status. The rights to life, liberty, and property are cultural inventions that function, in part, to keep males from killing and stealing from one another while they compete to attract sexual partners."

Read quote 5 likes
Rights

"The people will learn to feel the dignity of man. They will not merely demand their rights, which have been trampled in the dust, but themselves will take them - make them their own."

Read quote 5 likes
Helen Keller Author, Activist
Rights

"When one comes to think of it, there are no such things as divine, immutable, or inalienable rights. Rights are things we get when we are strong enough to make good our claim on them."

Read quote 5 likes
Frank Rich Journalist
Rights

"There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht."

Read quote 5 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Rights

"In the 1960s, various parts of the population became energized and began to enter the public arena to call for the rights of women, students, young people, old people, farmers and workers. What are called "special interests" - meaning the whole population - they began to press to enter the public arena. And they said that puts too much pressure on the state and therefore we have to have more moderation in democracy and they should go back and be quiet and obedient."

Read quote 5 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Rights

"[CIA manipulating] has its roots in internal Pakistani affairs. It's a horrible development and phenomenon which goes back to radical Islamisation under Zia and taking away the long standing rights of people in the tribal areas [who were left largely alone]."

Read quote 5 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Rights

"Poor whites didn't have rights. They made all kind of restrictions on voting. So person meant relatively well - off, free white man."

Read quote 5 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Rights

"Some of the most moving experiences I've had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights."

Read quote 5 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Rights

"In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his rights therein." But now, at any rate, as I have frequently observed, a man may desert the fertile frontier territories of truth and justice, which are the State's best lands, for fear of far more insignificant foes, without forfeiting any of his civil rights therein. Nay, townships are granted to deserters, and the General Court, as I am sometimes inclined to regard it, is but a deserters' camp itself."

Read quote 5 likes
John Adams Founding Father, Politician
Rights

"[You have Rights] antecedent to all earthly governments: Rights, that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; Rights, derived from the Great Legislator of the universe."

Read quote 5 likes
John Green Author, YouTuber
Rights

"Tonight, darling, we are going to right a lot of wrongs. And we are going to wrong some rights. The first shall be last; the last shall be first; the meek shall do some earth-inheriting. But before we can radically reshape the world, we need to shop."

Read quote 5 likes
Mary McCarthy Author
Rights

"Once the state is looked upon as the source of rights, rather than their bound protector, freedom becomes conditional on the pleasure of the state."

Read quote 5 likes
Morgan Freeman Actor, Narrator
Rights

"I don't need any more press. I get enough when I work, but environmental causes is one place where you can get me to open my mouth. And put my foot in it if necessary. I think the only thing I do that gives me any bragging rights in terms of energy conservation is sailing. Just using wind power."

Read quote 5 likes