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We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.

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.

My main quarrel with liberalism is not that liberalism places great emphasis on individual rights - I believe rights are very important and need to be respected. The issue is whether it is possible to define and justify our rights without taking a stand on the moral and even sometimes religious convictions that citizens bring to public life.

I feel that everyone has a right to be insane.

The rights of some must not be enjoyed by denying the rights of others. Neither can we permit states' rights at the expense of human rights.

It is precisely because the issue raised by this case touches the heart of what makes individuals what they are that we should be especially sensitive to the rights of those whose choices upset the majority.

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 thing about rights is that in the end you can't prove what should be considered a right.

From the beginning of our history the country has been afflicted with compromise. It is by compromise that human rights have been abandoned.

We all have a fundamental right to live free from fear, free from crime, and free from disorder - but while we share that right, we also share the duty to secure it.