The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

The term 'human rights defender,' incidentally, isn't something I or my attorneys came up with. Personally, I find it a little embarrassing.

Darling, I want my gay rights now.

The key to understanding the impact of the Human Rights Act in the U.K. is to appreciate that civil liberties and human rights are not two sides of the same coin.

Contrary to the myth that the U.K. respects decisions of the Strasbourg court but many other adherent states do not, the convention and Strasbourg court judgements have proved a highly effective tool in protecting and developing human rights in countries with no tradition of the rule of law.

All repressive laws must be revoked, and laws introduced to protect the rights of the people.

I'm okay with anybody expressing their rights.

Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights.

My belief in human rights includes a fundamental principle that is written into Article 1 of the UN Charter: respect for equal rights and self-determination.

One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.

We should have equal rights. We should have equal opportunities. We should have equal opportunities for jobs.

In Connecticut, we have passed some of the strongest anti-gun-violence laws in the nation. We don't restrict anybody's Second Amendment rights.

In every commercial state, notwithstanding any pretension to equal rights, the exaltation of a few must depress the many.

We support President Truman's civil rights program.

A writer has to fully defend his rights and his own worth.

My mother, for the last 20 years anyway, would not call herself a Marxist but a human rights activist.

Civil rights is unfinished business. Make it your business.

The system of racial classification is fiction, and we need to thoughtfully evaluate whether perpetuating it rigidly or allowing fluidity across the spectrum best supports human rights and social justice.

The fears of one class of men are not the measure of the rights of another.

Men have as exaggerated an idea of their rights as women have of their wrongs.