individual rights quotes

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.

Whether we are New Dealer, Old Dealer, Liberty Leaguer or Red, whether we agree or not, we still have the right to think and speak how we feel.

Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.

I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‚within the limits of the law‘ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

Private property began the instant somebody had a mind of his own.

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

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

All I’m for is the liberty of the individual.

Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.