Quotations

“The end does not justify the means. No one’s rights can be secured by the violation of therights of others.” Ayn Rand

“Either you believe in Human Rights or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways—if you believe it you have to stand up.” Roger Waters

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”  Albert Einstein

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom, it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”  William Pitt the Younger November 1783

“All political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them.”  Hannah Arendt

“One can imagine a high-definition democracy, in which they would show the human rights chart every day, in real time on the screens, in the way they do now for the weather. They would show the observance and violation of those rights over the whole planet.”  Jean Baudrillard

“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”  John F. Kennedy

“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”  Frederick Douglass

“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”  Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear

“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It is the purpose of government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt

“People use democracy as a free-floating abstraction disconnected from reality. Democracy in and of itself is not necessarily good. Gang rape, after all, is democracy in action. All men have the right to live their own life. Democracy must be rooted in a rational philosophy that first and foremost recognizes the right of an individual. A few million Imperial Order men screaming for the lives of a much smaller number of people in the New World may win a democratic vote, but it does not give them the right to those lives, or make their calls for such killing right. Democracy is not a synonym for justice or for freedom. Democracy is not a sacred right sanctifying mob rule. Democracy is a principle that is subordinate to the inalienable rights of the individual.”  Terry Goodkind, Naked Empire

“Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle…. Goats are used for sacrificial offerings and not lions.”  Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

“Our freedoms are vanishing. If you do not get active to take a stand now against all that is wrong while we still can, then maybe one of your children may elect to do so in the future, when it will be far more riskier — and much, much harder.”  Suzy Kassem

“The real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.”  Adam Michnik

“If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own-which it is-and render impassable with our bodies the corridors to the gas chamber. For if they come for you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”  James Baldwin

“…our species is one, and each of the individuals who compose it are entitled to equal moral consideration.”  Michael Ignatieff

“I believe peace, when properly defined, is the first fundamental human right that makes all other rights possible. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to use the examples enshrined as ‘unalienable rights’ in the US Constitution, will remain forever out of reach in the absence of peace.”  Steve Killelea

 “Stepping up in the face of injustice, is not vigilantism, it’s humanity.”  Abhijit Naskar

 “Be a valiant shield to stand against atrocities. If not you, who else will call that duty mine”  Abhijit Naskar

If any state fails to protect the natural rights of human beings, that state loses its legitimacy and its right to govern and can be legitimately rebelled against in the interest of justice, peace, and freedom.”  Robert J. Spitzer

 “The whole point of natural rights is that they cannot be superseded by the power of the state.”  Robert J. Spitzer

“Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.”  L. Ron Hubbard

 “The political establishment is vulnerable. And if we make our numbers count, we can change anything.”  Nathan J. Robinson

 “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and it does seem to me that notwithstanding all these social agencies and activities there is not that vigilance which should be exercised in the preservation of our rights.”  Ida B. Wells-Barnett

 “It’s not enough to be born as a human body, each human must earn his or her admission into the human race with humane actions.” Abhijit Naskar