Human rights are arguably one of the most important aspects of modern society which is why I wrote this list on the top quotes about human rights! ✊🏽
Below, you will find a wide range of inspiring, strong, motivational, wise, and courageous quotes about human rights that are sure to inspire.
Side note: If I have missed any iconic quotes or sayings, please share them below and I will be happy to include them in future updates! 😃
65+ Courageous Quotes About Human Rights!
1. “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” – Frederick Douglass
2. “No man is above the law and no man below it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
3. “Without peace, there is little hope for human rights” – Martin Ennals
4. “I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot.” – Horace Greeley
5. “Women’s empowerment is intertwined with respect for human rights.” – Mahnaz Afkhami
6. “Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.” – Robert Ingersoll
Nelson Mandella & Gandhi Human Rights Quotes
7. “Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
8. “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” – Nelson Mandela
9. “Begin with duties of a man and rights will follow as spring follows winter” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
10. “A right is not what someone gives you; it’s what no one can take from you.” – Ramsey Clark
11. “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
12. “Let us pray for peace, and let us bring it about, starting in our own homes!” – Pope Francis
13. “Freedom from fear” could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.” – Dag Hammarskjold
14. “A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.” – Felix Adler
15. “The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” – John F. Kennedy
16. “…In a world riven by inequity, medicine could be viewed as social justice work.” – Paul Farmer
17. “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” – Stephen Biko
18. “Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit.” – Victor Hugo
19. “Some values must be universal, like human rights and the equal worth of every human being.” – Bjorn Ulvaeus
20. “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” – Noam Chomsky
21. “Being a humanitarian, supporting animal rights activists, human rights activists, it’s all the same.” – Daryl Hannah
22. “In the future, human rights will be increasingly a universal criterion for designing ethical systems.” – Mahnaz Afkhami
23. “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” – Abraham Lincoln
24. “Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.” – Roger Nash Baldwin
25. “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.” – Hannah Arendt
26. ” Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.” – Dalai Lama
27. “Together we can prevent genocide from happening again. Together we can make a better future for our children.” – Dith Pran
Inspiring Quotes About Human Rights
28. “Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.” – Jimmy Carter
29. “So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we’ll be called a democracy.” – Roger Nash Baldwin
30. “You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.” – Benazir Bhutto
31. “The modern infrastructures that exists in the world all contribute to the advancement of human rights and democracy.” – Akbar Ganji
32. “You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that reality. You have dignity and worth that exists prior to the law.” – Lyn Beth Neylon
33. “You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.” – Pearl S. Buck
34. “The evolution of the human rights movement clearly illustrates humanity’s ongoing struggle toward creating a better world.” – Robert Alan Silverstein
35. “The collective heartbeat of the oppressed will always be louder than any missile strike, gunshot or bomb.” – R.Patient
36. “Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” – Dalai Lama
37. “The connection between women’s human rights, gender equality, socioeconomic development and peace is increasingly apparent.” – Mahnaz Afkhami
38. “It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.” – Carl T. Rowan
39. “Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
40. “Where there is no revolution, there is no progress, where there is no progress, there is no difference between human life and animal life.” – Abhijit Naskar
41. “Life is not a matter of place, things or comfort; rather, it concerns the basic human rights of family, country, justice and human dignity.” – Imelda Marcos
42. “The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.” – Emma Goldman
Inspirational Quotes About Individual Human Rights
43. “And we who have toiled for freedom’s law, have we sought for freedom’s soul? Have we learned at last that human right is not a part but the whole?” – John Boyle O’Reilly
44. “Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.” – Pope Francis
45. “Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life…” – Jimmy Carter
46. “Human Rights for everyone is the necessary foundation upon which all of us may build a world where everybody may live in peace and serenity and plenty.” – Michael Douglas
47. “I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.” – Bishop Desmond Tutu
48. “Peace, harmony and brotherhood are the marks of humanity. They are the heart of every religion. They are the ultimate weapons against all powerful weapons.” – Amit Ray
49. “Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must at that moment become the center of the universe.” – Elie Wiesel
50. “Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy, and sustainable human development.” – Kofi Annan
51. “Because to take away a man’s freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person.” – Madeleine L’Engle
52. “If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek. If leaving duties unperformed we run after rights, they will escape us like a will-o’-the-wisp.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
53. “Those who today still feel a sense of impotence can do something: they can support Amnesty International. They can help it to stand up for freedom and justice.” – Peter Benenson
54. “In the old times men carried out their rights for themselves as they lived, but nowadays every baby seems born with a social manifesto in its mouth much bigger than itself.” – Oscar Wilde
55. “Human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity.” – Kofi Annan
56. “The motivation isn’t fame or fortune, but rather freedom: the liberty to mold a society rich with tradition and culture that will adhere to human rights and capitalize on opportunities.” – Suzanne F. Stevens
57. “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” – Abigail Adams
58. “I’m not an activist; I don’t look for controversy. I’m not a political person, but I’m a person with compassion. I care passionately about equal rights. I care about human rights. I care about animal rights.” – Ellen DeGeneres
59. “What we want to see is the development of human rights and greater democracy, not just because it is our system but because we think that’s the best way that economic and political development go hand in hand.” – Tony Blair
60. “The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled underfoot.” – William Ellery Channing
61. “The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights. That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.” – Kofi Annan
62. “Words like freedom, justice, democracy are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.” – James Baldwin
63. “Humanity should not remain insensitive to the forest fire or wildfire every year. Unless we act, the loss of biodiversity and extinction of herbs, birds and animals and the pains of the trees, birds, animals and the poor is also alarming signal for the extinction of humanity itself.” – Amit Ray
64. “To exercise power costs effort and demands courage. That is why so many fail to assert rights to which they are perfectly entitled — because a right is a kind of power but they are too lazy or too cowardly to exercise it. The virtues which cloak these faults are called patience and forbearance.” – Friedrich Nietzsche