"Rights are not gifts from one man..." - Quote by Thomas Paine
Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.
More by Thomas Paine
“It will be proper to take a review of the several sources from which governments have arisen, and on which they have been founded.”
“Panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstone of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might have lain forever undiscovered.”
“An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”
More on Rights
“How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what's already yours?”
“Circumstances sometimes require, that rights the most unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy.”
“My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me.”
More on Equality
“Compassion can be put into practice if one recognizes the fact that every human being is a member of humanity and the human family regardless of differences in religion, culture, color and creed. Deep down there is no difference.”
“I, with millions of other Americans, have the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. had; when I wake up I wish some of the things I dreamt would be true. I wish that little black and white boys and girls would hold hands without being shocked at their nearness to each other and say in a natural way, "we have overcome.”
“Either we all live in a decent world, or nobody does.”