James Mackintosh Quotes

The rights of man as the foundation of just Government had been long understood but the superstructures projected had been sadly defective

One man’s right is every man’s right.

Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.

The idea of "human rights," for example - sometimes it bothers me. Not in itself, but because the concept of human rights has replaced the much grander idea of justice.

Freedom and Justice are twin sisters.

True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denial of rights to others.

The quest for freedom, dignity, and the rights of man will never end.

We made freedom a birthright.

Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience.

The rights of the lowliest criminal are not his alone. They belong to us all.

It is not on the ruin of liberty that we may build justice.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.

Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.

This is not a question of expediency, but of right. In antebellum days the proposition was not, “Are the blacks good enough to be free?” but, “Have they the right?” So today the question is not, “Will outrages result from freeing humanity?” but, “Has it the right to life, the means of life, the opportunities of happiness?”

The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class. It is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.

I know nothing of man’s rights, or woman’s rights; human rights are all that I recognize.

What is life without liberty; and what is liberty without equality of rights?

All men are created equal.

Everyone must have their rights, and in fact everyone gets their rights.

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

Freedom is our birthright.

Everybody is born free. Not everybody is worthy of freedom.

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.