Right to Freedom Quotes

When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America-- when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause … For myself I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation … that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion … no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the Congress at Philadelphia. I trust that it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal.

I don't think anyone has ever announced running for president that they want to change the Bill of Rights.

The inhabitants of the English colonies in North-America … are entitled to life, liberty and property: and they have never ceded to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.

The right of a nation to determine its own form of government does not include the right to establish a slave society (that is, to legalize the enslavement of some men by others). There is no such thing as "the right to enslave." A nation can do it, just as a man can become a criminal- but neither can do it by right.

The right to freedom being the gift of God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.

We have laws against torture. The Constitution says nothing whatever about torture. It speaks of punishment; 'cruel and unusual' punishments are forbidden.

Patients who have suffered appalling medical negligence, abused children ignored by social services, mistreated residents of care homes - they have all been given a voice by the Human Rights Act.

An insignificant right becomes important when it is assailed.

The Declaration of Independence... is the declaratory charter of our rights, and of the rights of man

The most unquestionable right may be rendered doubtful, if once admitted to be a subject of controversy

In every man there is an instinctive and passionate reaction if his person or liberty is attacked.

I will obviously exercise my freedom of speech because I live in India, not in Saudi Arabia and Iran; freedom of speech is an integral part of the Constitution of India and I believe in respecting in whatever is lawful in India.

Every child has a right to education as much as to life, and every woman the right to live.

We believe every child is created equal with the right to life.

What vested rights so high or so sacred as a man’s right to himself, to his wife and children, to his liberty, and to the fruits of his own industry? Did not our fathers declare that those rights were inalienable?

The right of petition belongs to the people of the United States. Slaves are not people in the eye of the law. They have no legal personality

The Constitution guarantees us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. It doesn't guarantee our rights to charity.