I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

The Arab population of Palestine are victims of genocidal actions; their lands are confiscated or deprived of water supplies in the semi-desert areas, and their homes are destroyed with heavy wrecking equipment.

I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.

Gay marriage is going to happen. It must.

I do think that Magna Carta and international law are worth paying some attention to.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.

It’s a facet of the gay rights movement that people don’t think about enough. Why suddenly marriage equality? Because it wasn’t until 1981 that the court struck down Louisiana’s ‚head and master rule,‘ that the husband was head and master of the house.

Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

What has happened at Guantanamo Bay… does not represent the will of the American people. I’m embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they’re not discriminated on the job.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

I hope that a move toward clemency with Judge Afiuni would be a step towards the importance of maintaining a properly functioning justice system.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

We are proud of the history of our country; we learned it in school and have grown up hearing of freedom, justice and human rights.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.

I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.

The West Bank is essentially imprisoned.

I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.

When Hillary was First Lady, we went to the Beijing Women’s Conference. She courageously stood up and spoke out on behalf of human rights and women’s rights, inspiring millions to fight for a better future.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

Rendition is just sending people abroad to be tortured.

So what we’re talking about here is human rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, period. And what we’re facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to human dignity and equality.

Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

I personally have always been in favor of people who are gay being permitted to marry legally – and I still feel that way.

If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.

The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them.

Man, all lives matter.

If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.

When you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it’s again not people who are intrinsically evil.

Freedom is not enough.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

I don’t think that a same-sex marriage is the way God intended it to be.

Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

I have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I’ve always done it in private.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

In some respects, South African apartheid was more vicious than Israeli practices, and in some respects the opposite is true.

I was arrested three times and tortured once.

Christ managed to boil down an awful lot of commandments to a few very simple rules for living. It’s when you go backwards through the ‚begats‘ and the Garden of Eden, and you start thinking, ‚Hang on, that’s a big punishment for eating one lousy apple… There’s a human-rights issue.‘

I see myself in all the people in the world who are suffering and who are very badly treated and who are often made to feel that they have no place on this Earth.

In February 2004, the two traditional torturers of Haiti – France and the United States – combined to back a military coup and send President Aristide off to Africa. The U.S. denies him permission to return to the entire region.

I’m not for gay marriage, but I’m not for discriminating against people.

When you single out any particular group of people for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

And every human being is precious.

I think what’s going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A. I wouldn’t say it’s the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts.

Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.