Quotes on Rights And Freedoms

The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

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.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.

To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

No man is above the law, and no man is below it.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

The ADA was a landmark civil rights legislation. It was a bill of rights for persons with disabilities, a formal acknowledgement that Americans with disabilities are Americans first and that they're entitled to the same rights and freedoms as everybody else.

The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.

All power is inherent in the people.

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.

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.

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

Those religions that are oppressive to women are also against democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.