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Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

Human rights will be a powerful force for the transformation of reality when they are not simply understood as externally defined norms of behavior but are lived as the spontaneous manifestation of internalized values.

We can never protect the rights by only thinking about our rights. By performing the universal responsibility with a compassionate mind, you can protect your own right and that of others.

World belongs to humanity, not this leader, that leader or that king or prince or religious leader. World belongs to humanity.

We should conceive of ourselves not as rulers of Earth, but as highly powerful, conscious stewards: The Earth is given to us in trust, and we can screw it up or make it work well and sustainably.

Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian - a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer.

The spirit and determination of the people to chart their own destiny is the greatest power for good in human affairs.

Human rights are not a privilege granted by the few, they are a liberty entitled to all, and human rights, by definition, include the rights of all humans, those in the dawn of life, the dusk of life, or the shadows of life.

A 'human right' is, by definition, timeless. It cannot adhere to some societies and not others, at some times and not at other times.

The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.