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*
They
[the founders] proclaimed to all the world the revolutionary
doctrine of the divine rights of the common man. That
doctrine has ever since been the heart of the American
faith.
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
|
The
right to freedom of expression is justified first of all
as the right of an individual purely in his capacity as
an individual. It derives from the widely accepted premise
of Western thought that the proper end of man is the realization
of his character and potentialities as a human being.
-- Thomas I. Emerson
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*
They
that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-- Benjamin
Franklin |
The
whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right
of the people at large or considered as individuals... It
establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable
and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive
them of.
-- Albert Gallatin
*
“Rights
that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth
having.”
-- Mohandas
K. Gandhi |
|
Civil
liberties victories never stay won, but must be fought for
over and over again.
-- Ira Glasser
Make
men wise, and by that very operation you make them free.
Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped
power can stand against the artillery of opinion.
-- William Godwin
The
greatest right of a civilized person is to be left alone,
unless he does harm to others or is threatening to do harm
to himself.
-- Justice Arthur Joseph Goldberg
I am
the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot.
-- Horace Greeley
"With
every civil right there has to be a corresponding civil
obligation."
-- Edison Haines
In a
free government, the security for civil rights must be the
same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one
case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other
in the multiplicity of sects.
-- Alexander Hamilton
*
"There
is no contradiction between effective law enforcement
and respect for civil and human rights."
-- Dorothy
Height |
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*
None
of us would trade freedom of expression for the narrowness
of the public censor. America is a free market for
people who have something to say, and need not fear
to say it.
-- Hubert
Humphrey
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The
first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference
with their own particular ways of being happy, provided
those ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours.
-- William James
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*
"A
Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to
against every government, and what no just government
should refuse, or rest on inference."
-- Thomas
Jefferson
Bear
in mind this sacred principle, that though the will
of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will
to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority
possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect,
and to violate would be oppression.
-- Thomas
Jefferson
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"The
best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens
a perfect equality of rights."
-- Thomas
Jefferson
By a
declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate
freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce
against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions
of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters
against doing evil which no honest government should decline.
-- Thomas
Jefferson
Whenever
the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their
own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as
to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them
to rights.
-- Thomas
Jefferson
I would
rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much
liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
-- Thomas
Jefferson
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*
If
we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent
revolution inevitiable.
-- John
F. Kennedy
“In
giving rights to others which belong to them, we give
rights to ourselves and to our country”
-- John
F. Kennedy
|
I believe
in an America where the separation of church and state is
absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the president
(should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister
would tell his parishoners for whom to vote -- where no
church or church school is granted any public funds or political
preference -- and where no man is denied public office merely
because his religion differs from the president who might
appoint him or the people who might elect him.
-- John
F. Kennedy
*
The
enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must
be the supreme goal and abiding practice of any western
society.
-- Robert
F. Kennedy |
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*
"Whatever
career you may choose for yourself - doctor, lawyer,
teacher - let me propose an avocation to be pursued
along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil
rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will
make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better
teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else
possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility
that can only spring from love and selflessly helping
your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself
to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make
a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your
country and a finer world to live in."
-- Martin
Luther King, Jr. |
“I believe
in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions
that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in
democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes
me a liberal, and I’m proud of it."
-- Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize-winning economist)
"When
the government violates the people's rights, insurrection
is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the
most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of
duties."
-- Marquis De Lafayette
It is
easy to think the State has a lot of different objects --
military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way
things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply
to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human
beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a
fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub,
a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own
garden -- that is what the State is there for. And unless
they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such
moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police,
economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.
-- C. S. Lewis
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*
"The
Cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at
the end of one, or even one hundred defeats."
-- Abraham
Lincoln
*
“Don't
interfere with anything in the Constitution. That
must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of
our liberties.”
-- Abraham
Lincoln
To
sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards
of men.”
-- Abraham
Lincoln
|
facebook.com/AlterNetNews
*
I
believe there are more instances of the abridgment of
the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments
of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
-- James
Madison |
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*
Get
up, stand up, stand up for your rights”
-- Bob
Marley
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*
If
the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state
has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his
own house, what books he may read or what films he may
watch.
-- Thurgood
Marshall |
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*
All
men are by nature born equally free and independent.
-- George
Mason
We
came equals into this world, and equals shall we go
out of it.
-- George
Mason
*
Every
society, all government, and every kind of civil compact
therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general
good and safety of the community.
-- George
Mason
|
*
If
all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would
be no more justified in silencing that one person than
he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing
mankind.
-- John
Stuart Mill |
|
Of the
liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of
speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage
in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ
of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms....
If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment,
it is impossible that government should ever degenerate
into tyranny.
-- James Monroe
The
busybodies have begun to infect American society with a
nasty intolerance -- a zeal to police the private lives
of others and hammer them into standard forms -- A Nation
of Finger Pointers.
-- Lance Morrow
Fascism
should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of
state and corporate power.
-- Benito Mussolini
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*
The
only way to make sure people you agree with can speak
is to support the rights of people you don't agree
with.
-- Eleanor
Holmes Norton
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*
We
need not throw away 200 years of American jurisprudence
while we fight terrorism. We need not choose between
our most deeply held values, and keeping this nation
safe.
-- Barack
Obama
|
*
For
all men being originally equals, no one by birth could
have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference
to all others for ever.
-- Thomas
Paine |
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*
I
knew someone had to take the first step and I made
up my mind not to move.
-- Rosa
Parks
|
All
of us can think of a book... that we hope none of our children
or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I
have the right to remove that book from the shelf -- that
book I abhor -- then you also have exactly the same right
and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left
on the shelf for any of us.
-- Katherine Patterson
Demanding
domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in
preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently
the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be
sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be
necessary to remain safe and secure.
-- US Representative Ron Paul
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*
Governments
exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved
and the rich need no protection: they have many friends
and few enemies.
-- Wendell
Phillips
|
|
In the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 1948) in
most solemn form, the dignity of a person is acknowledged
to all human beings; and as a consequence there is proclaimed,
as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in search
for truth and in the attainment of moral good and of justice,
and also the right to a dignified life.
-- Pope John XXIII, 1881-1963 Pacem in Terris, 1963
Power
always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret,
especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly
dangerous.
-- William Proxmire
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*
"A
community is democratic only when the humblest and
weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic,
and social rights that the biggest and most powerful
possess."
-- A.
Philip Randolph
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*
Those
who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy,
forget in time that men have died to win them.
-- Franklin
D. Roosevelt
|
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*
In
every country, we should be teaching our children
the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of
Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility
and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that
we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all
that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
-- Carl
Sagan
“I
also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed
at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it
is when the President takes his oath of office, rather
than to the flag and the nation”
-- Carl
Sagan
|
The
'strength' of the People becomes weak when we don't 'exercise'
our rights.
-- Eric Schaub
"From
the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests;
you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking
a dangerous blow at your own."
-- Carl Schurz
|
As
global citizens, it is our responsibility to become
active participants in our democracy, and to make
sure that everyone's civil rights are protected.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
|
 |
We must
remember that a right lost to one is lost to all.
-- William Reece Smith, Jr
Constitutional
rights may not be infringed simply because the majority
of the people choose that they be.
-- Supreme Court of the United States
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*
There
will never be a really free and enlightened State
until the State comes to recognize the individual
as a higher and independent power, from which all
its own power and authority are derived, and treats
him accordingly.
-- Henry
David Thoreau
|
"Every
segment of our population, and every individual, has a right
to expect from his government a fair deal."
-- Harry S. Truman
The
tyranny of the many would be when one body takes over the
rights of others, and then exercises its power to change
the laws in its favor.
-- Voltaire
I may
not agree with what you say, but to your death I will defend
your right to say it.
-- Voltaire
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*
The
constitution does not provide for first and second class
citizens.
-- Wendell
Wilkie
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*
"Slowly
we have lifeted ourselves by our own bootstraps. Step
by halting step, we have beat our way back."
~Roy
Wilkins
*
An
enormous discrepancy exists between the way we talk
about equality in the abstract and the value as translated
into laws and justice.”
~Roy
Wilkins
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If you
mind your own business, you won't be minding mine.
-- Hank Williams
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I
am where I am because of the bridges that I crossed.
Sojourner Truth was a bridge. Harriet Tubman was a
bridge. Ida B. Wells was a bridge. Madame C. J. Walker
was a bridge. Fannie Lou Hamer was a bridge.
-- Oprah
Winfrey
|
Civil
Rights Day
- August 12
Citizenship
Day -
September 17
Bill
Of Rights Day
- December 15
Human
Rights Day
- December 10
