Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

We are as great as our belief in human liberty—no greater.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.

I fundamentally believe in freedom and human rights.

America is a Nation with a mission - and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace - a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

We do believe that freedom, the right to choose, the right to vote, respect and justice is the fundamental right of all people. All people must obtain these rights.

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

My wife needs her freedom just like me.

Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.

The essence of democracy is its assurance that every human being should so respect himself and should be so respected in his own personality that he should have opportunity equal to that of every other human being to show what he was meant to become.

The greatness of this country lies in how every single person can exercise their right to be himself or herself.

Liberty is the only thing you can't have unless you give it to others.

Moral principles of liberty that endow a person with the right to claim and acquire property at the same time oblige that person to respect every other person’s equal right to do the same.

Democracy is a value in itself. It doesn't have to be defended [justified] any more than freedom has to be defended.

I hope that liberty and equality and opportunity lie within your heart because the hopes of millions of Americans depend on it.

We talk about democracy and human rights. Iraqis talk about justice and honor.

We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for human rights.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women?

Without freedom there can be no morality.

In all the Arab countries I have been in, the people have said that they were not demonstrating for food. They wanted dignity.

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

We know, deep down, that repression is not the wave of the future. We know that the desire for freedom is not confined to, or owned by, any culture; it is the inborn hope of our humanity. We know that free governments are the only way to ensure that the strong are just and the weak are valued. And we know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy.

I get to decide how my body shows up in any space. When I'm walking into a place like the Globes, I want to make it very clear that how I show up is to further the freedom of everybody.

Let each person have a chance to be who he or she wants to be. Only then can we be considered a truly liberated nation.