Fundamental Rights Quotes

• What are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights.

  B. R. Ambedkar

  Rights, Order, Liberty

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• Each state, so that it does not abridge the great fundamental rights belonging, under the Constitution, to all citizens, may grant or withhold such civil rights as it pleases; all that is required is that, in this respect, its laws shall be impartial.

  Lyman Trumbull

  Respect, Rights, Law

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• The very purpose of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is to protect minority rights against majority voters. Every court decision that strikes down discriminatory legislation, including past Supreme Court decisions, affirming the fundamental rights to marry the person you love, overrules a majority decision.

  David Boies

  Past, Rights, Decision

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• What libertarians assert is simply that differences among normal adults do not imply different fundamental rights.

  Tom G. Palmer

  Rights, Differences, Adults

  Tom G. Palmer (2009). “Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice”, p.35, Cato Institute

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• The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that marriage is one of the most fundamental rights that we have as Americans under our Constitution.

  Ted Olson

  Marriage, Rights, Usa

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• In this context, the church supports and favors every effort today to seek the full development of the personality of all human beings, and to promote their fundamental rights, their dignity and liberty.

  Claudio Hummes

  Rights, Personality, Support

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• The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Moving, Rights, Organization

  53 Copy quote

• Fundamental rights belong to the human being just because you are a human being.

  Desmond Tutu

  Rights, Fundamentals, Humans

  14 Copy quote

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

  Susan B. Anthony

  Witty, Strong Women, Independent

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

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• Fundamental rights are for everyone and have to be respected by everyone. But we can't be naïve in dealing with those who are abusing the principles protecting fundamental rights.

  Vera Jourova

  Rights, Principles, Fundamentals

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• We must recognize the fundamental rights of man. There can be no true national life in our democracy unless we give unqualified recognition to freedom of religious worship and freedom of education.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Religious, Patriotic, Men

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• We must now, in the 21st century, protect democracy, one which rests on fundamental rights for all, regardless of skin color, gender, race or religion. Nothing less than that is at stake.

  Martin Schulz

  Color, Rights, Race

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Law matters, because it keeps us safe, because it protects our most fundamental rights and freedoms, and because it is the foundation of our democracy.

  Elena Kagan

  Rights, Law, Democracy

  Speech on Being Nominated to Serve as U.S. Supreme Court Justice, delivered 10 May 2010

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• Human rights are fundamental rights, they are the minimum, the very least we demand. Too often, they become the goal itself. What should be the minimum becomes the maximum - all we are supposed to expect - but human rights aren't enough. The goal is, and must always be, justice.

  Arundhati Roy

  Rights, Justice, Goal

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• My hope is that the Pope Francis visit to Cuba will remind all the Cuban citizens that they possess dignity and fundamental rights that come from God and that the Castro regime has no claim on changing what is 100% God-given.

  Marco Rubio

  Rights, Cuba, Citizens

  FaceBook post by Marco Rubio from Sep 21, 2015

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  Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life . . .

  Nelson Mandela

  Justice, Overcoming, Fundamentals

  Nelson Mandela (2012). “Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom”, p.141, Simon and Schuster

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• Fundamental rights are not a given today. We have to protect them.

  Vera Jourova

  Rights, Fundamentals, Today

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• India's democracy where over 1 billion people have a voice in deciding their future is a world example of how governance can incorporate diversity into a movement for inclusive growth. New modes of democratic engagement, especially through using e-governance are allowing greater access to fundamental rights for all our people.

  Narendra Modi

  Rights, Voice, People

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• With so many of our fundamental rights hanging in the balance, it is not good enough to simply roll the dice, hoping a nominee has changed his past views. It's not good enough to think, 'This is the best we can expect from this president'.

  Barbara Boxer

  Past, Thinking, Rights

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• Of course we desire education and we think it is a good thing, but you don't have to have education in order to know that you want certain fundamental rights, you have got aspirations, you have got acclaims. It has nothing to do with education whatsoever.

  Nelson Mandela

  Thinking, Rights, Order

  Source: www.itv.com

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• May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman.

  Pope Francis

  Men, Rights, Use

  Address of Pope Francis at the meeting with the civil authorities of Albania, w2.vatican.va. September 21, 2014.

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• I think the government has a role in protecting the fundamental rights of its citizens.

  Al Franken

  Thinking, Rights, Government

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• When the function of libraries is put in terms of their contributions to the community, people see their centrality. The challenge to us is to continue to help them see it in those terms to describe our larger purposes. We must assert that libraries are central to the quality of life in our society; that libraries have a direct role in preserving democratic freedoms. Free access to information and the opportunity of every individual to improve his or her mind, employment prospects, and lifestyle are fundamental rights in our society.

  Arthur Curley

  Opportunity, Rights, People

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• The public is the tribunal before which all art is judged - not the critics or the academies. The public is the artist's only patron, and has certain fundamental rights. It will submit to education, and will respond to suggestion, but it will not be bullied.

  Walter J. Phillips

  Art, Rights, Suggestions

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• The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to 'create' rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.

  William J. Brennan

  Freedom, Rights, Government

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