Inalienable Rights Quotes

• Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.

  Maximilien Robespierre

  Freedom, Men, Rights

  'Dèclaration des droits de l'homme' 24 April 1793, article 6; this article, in slightly different form, is recorded as having figured in Robespierre's Projet of 21 April 1793

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• Government itself is founded upon the great doctrine of the consent of the governed, and has its cornerstone in the memorable principle that men are endowed with inalienable rights.

  Leland Stanford

  Memorable, Men, Rights

  Leland Stanford (1887). “Co-operation of Labor: Views of Senator Leland Stanford of California. An Interview ...”

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• Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

  Ronald Reagan

  Rights, Government, Liberty

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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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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• Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pursuit Of Happiness, Government, People

  Declaration of Independence (1776).

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• Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.

  John Locke

  Wisdom, Gun, Men

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• Law is often the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Tyrants, Equal Rights

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

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Change, Happiness

  Declaration of Independence (1776).

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• If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Men, Rights, Progress

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century”, Images from the Past Incorporated

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• Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Rights, Morality

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.459, Penguin

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• America derives its laws from its Constitution. It derives its values from the Bible. We don't get inalienable rights from the Constitution; we get them from God.

  Dennis Prager

  Rights, Law, America

  "A Response to My Many Critics - And a Solution" by Dennis Prager, www.realclearpolitics.com. ecember 05, 2006.

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• A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Rights, Law

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.118

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• The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Justice, Citizens

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.574

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• I believe all Americans are born with certain inalienable rights. As a child of God, I believe my rights are not derived from the constitution. My rights are not derived from any government. My rights are not denied by any majority. My rights are because I exist. They were given to me and each of my fellow citizens by our creator, and they represent the essence of human dignity.

  Joe Biden

  Children, Believe, Rights

  "Promises to Keep". Book by Joe Biden, 2008.

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• Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves.

  Germaine Greer

  Humans, Human Beings, Self Discovery

  The Times 1 Feb. 1986

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
  created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
  inalienable rights; that among these are life, and the right to
  make that of another miserable by thrusting upon him an
  incalculable quantity of acquaintances; liberty, particularly the
  liberty to introduce persons to one another without first
  ascertaining if they are not already acquainted as enemies; and
  the pursuit of another's happiness with a running pack of
  strangers.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Running, Men, Rights

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.115, 谷月社

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• Talk about slavery! It is not the peculiar institution of the South. It exists wherever men are bought and sold, wherever a man allows himself to be made a mere thing or a tool, and surrenders his inalienable rights of reason and conscience. Indeed, this slavery is more complete than that which enslaves the body alone.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Rights, Judging

  "Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau".

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• An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Equality, Men, Law

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

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• Of distinction by birth or badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Moon, Ideas, Birth

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Miscellaneous: 4. Parliamentary manual; 5. The anas; 6. Miscellaneous papers”, p.270

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• Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Philosophy, Animal, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

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• The evidence of [the] natural right [of expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do not claim these under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King of Kings.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Kings, Pursuit Of Happiness, Men

  Thomas Jefferson, H. A. Washington (2011). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private”, p.73, Cambridge University Press

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• The principles on which we engaged, of which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the laws of our being, and we but obeyed them in pursuing undeviatingly the course they called for. It issued finally in that inestimable state of freedom which alone can ensure to man the enjoyment of his equal rights.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Rights, Law

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Men, Rights

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.40, Modern Library

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• It is a principle that the right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to say, that the means follow their end.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Giving, Principles

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretarry of state”, p.579

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• That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Liberty, Rich, Positive Atheism

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