Active Quote by William Godwin

The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as we list;…

— William Godwin

Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men…

— Angelina Grimke

Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin…

— Thomas Paine

The question is, not what rights naturally belong to man, but how they may be most equally and effectually guarded in society.

— Roger Sherman

“The pretended rights of these theorists are all extremes: and in proportion as they are metaphysically true, they are morally and politically false. The…

— Edmund Burke

“The concept of individual rights is so new in human history that most men have not grasped it fully to this day. In accordance…

— Ayn Rand

Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think,…

— Ayn Rand

Man's right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his…

— Wallace D. Wattles

Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men.

— Ayn Rand

The ultimate notion of right is that which tends to the universal good; and when one's acting in a certain manner has this tendency…

— Francis Hutcheson

The rights a man arrogates to himself are related to the duties he imposes on himself, to the tasks to which he feels equal.…

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“The notion of obligations comes before that of rights, which is subordinate and relative to the former. A right is not effectual by itself,…

— Simone Weil