Equal Rights Quotes

• Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Law, Tyrants

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.224, Cambridge University Press

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• The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.

  Emma Goldman

  Life, Rights, Justice

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.126, 谷月社

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• Equal rights for all, special privileges for none

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Equality, Rights

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• I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.

  Dr. Seuss

  Inspiring, Equality, Rights

  Dr. Seuss (1995). “Six by Seuss”, Prop Pub Juv

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• We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Brother, Yoga

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• We are confronted primarily with a moral issue... whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.

  John F. Kennedy

  Opportunity, Rights, Issues

  Civil Rights Address, delivered 11 June 1963

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• The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

  John F. Kennedy

  Freedom, Men, Rights

  1963 On sending national guardsmen to ensure peaceful integration at the University of Alabama. Address to the nation, 11 Jun.

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• No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Equality, Men, Rights

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.278

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  The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Native American, Rights

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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  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.

  Alice Paul

  Women, Equality, Rights

  "Deeds Not Words" by Bobbie Brinegar, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 12, 2016.

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  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.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less

  Susan B. Anthony

  Strong Women, Equality, White

  Motto of The Revolution (newspaper), 8 Jan. 1868

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• All, too, will 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

  Freedom, Patriotic, Equality

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• The civil rights movement didn't begin in Montgomery and it didn't end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute.

  Julian Bond

  Freedom, Equality, Rights

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• I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for.

  Helen Suzman

  Inspirational, Fighting, Opportunity

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• Thought Of equality- as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself- as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.

  Walt Whitman

  Equality, Rights, Giving

  Walt Whitman (2008). “Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1860-1867”, p.425, NYU Press

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• We need to guarantee equal rights and civil rights and say that, here in America, workers have the right to organize - women have the right to choose - and justice belongs to everyone regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation.

  John F. Kerry

  Rights, Race, America

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• Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.

  James Madison

  Love, Loyalty, Country

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• We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter - and to write it in the books of law.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Country, Book, Writing

  Address before Joint Session of Congress, 27 Nov. 1963

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• Women will be no longer made the slaves of, or dependent upon men ... They will be equal in education, rights, privileges and personal liberty.

  Robert Owen

  Women, Equality, Rights

  "The Book of the New Moral World, Vol. 6". Book by Robert Owen, 1836-1844.

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  I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Life, Strong Women, Independent

  "The original suffragette: the extraordinary Mary Wollstonecraft" by Bee Rowlatt, www.theguardian.com. October 5, 2015.

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• If you are for freedom and equal rights, which we hear a lot of talk about these days, then you have to include the LGBTQ community in that. And if you're not willing to put your time where your mouth is, then I don't know quite what you mean by commitment in your life.

  Hal Sparks

  Mean, Commitment, Rights

  "Hal Sparks, ‘Gay-Adjacent’ Star of Queer As Folk , Explains Why He Supports LGBT Equality" by Charlotte Robinson, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 27, 2012.

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• I am prepared to sacrifice every so-called privilege I possess in order to have a few rights.

  Inez Milholland

  Women, Sacrifice, Rights

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• I don't need no peace. I need equal rights and justice.

  Peter Tosh

  Rights, Justice, Needs

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• the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Law, Majority Rule

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

  Audre Lorde

  Feminist, Fearless, Different

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.132, Crossing Press

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