Bayard Rustin Quotes

All the problems that fall to the League may ultimately be reduced to one - that of man, and the dignity of man.

I do protect human rights, and I hope I shall always be looked up as a champion of human rights.

For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people's civil liberties. I imagine what I write in the future will follow in that vein. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction.

Respect for the dignity of the human person is the foundational principle of any just society. From a Catholic perspective, it also forms the foundation of all of our Church's social teachings.

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.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

I think everyone deserves dignity.

From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable.

How a society treats its disabled is the true measure of a civilization.

The little man is still a man.

Some values must be universal, like human rights and the equal worth of every human being.

Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.

Every human being, including those who belong to the enemy, have rights.

A defensible and durable civilization can only sustain itself legitimately and effectively if it recognizes the inherent dignity of every member of the human family

Wherever there is repression of the individual, wherever there are acts contrary to the nature of the individual, there can be no greater crime.

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 at stake is human dignity. If a man is not accorded respect he cannot respect himself and if he does not respect himself, he cannot demand it.

The only situation that I can't be in favour of is the lack of respect to human rights in Venezuela.

It's a principle of my philosophy that you have to respect the individual human being.

I'm a huge advocate for human rights and cultural rights. I stand up for minorities and will always continue to do so.

No civilized society can thrive upon victims, whose humanity has been permanently mutilated.

The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man.

The issue of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issues and also one of the most sensitive and controversial.

I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.

The law protects you from being abused. It doesn't threaten your lifestyle for someone else to have the right to exhibit their lifestyle.