No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.
—Helen Keller in Optimism
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
—G. K. Chesterton
Human beings have capitalized on the silence of animals, just as certain human beings have historically imposed silence on certain other human beings by denying slaves the right to literacy, denying women the right to own property, and denying both the right to vote.
—Gary Steiner
We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.
—Lydia Maria Child
America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness-built upon freedom-is moral, not material. we have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.
—Woodrow Wilson