JOHN F KENNEDY "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." HUGO BLACK, ONE MAN'S STAND FOR FREEDOM (1963) "Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have, or the views they express, or the words they speak or write." HENRY GEORGE, PROGRESS AND POVERTY "The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air - it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world, and others no right." THOMAS JEFFERSON "Equal rights for all, special privileges for none." VLADIMIR LENIN, 1917 "The constitution of Soviet Russia must insure equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex, creed, race or nationality." JOHN VIII, 32 "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." IMMANUEL KANT "Freedom is that faculty which enlarges the usefulness of all other faculties." LENIN SPEECH, 1917 "No amount of political freedom will satisfy the hungry masses." ABRAHAM LINCOLN "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it." THOMAS MACAULAY "Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim." SAMUEL BOWLES "The cause of freedom is the cause of God." BULWER-LYTTON "Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness." CARNOT "In a free country there is much clamour, with little suffering; in a despotic state there is little complaint, with much grievance." CICERO "Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered." ABRAHAM LINCOLN - GETTYSBURG ADDRESS "Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - COMEDY OF ERRORS, ACT V, SC 1 "Let's go hand in hand, not one before another." THOMAS JEFFERSON, DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK - DEMOCRACY "Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people." ABRAHAM LINCOLN "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people" ALFRED E. SMITH - SPEECH, 1933 "All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy." ARISTOTLE - POLITICS Democracy arose from men thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal in all respects." CALVIN COOLIDGE "It would be folly to argue that the people cannot make political mistakes. They can and do make grave mistakes. They know it, they pay the penalty, but compared with the mistakes which have been made by every kind of autocracy they are unimportant." WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, SPEECH, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, CHICAGO, JULY 8, 1896 "The humblest citizen of all the land, when clad in the armour of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error." WILLIAM HAZLITT, CHARACTERISTICS, 1823 "We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment." THOMAS MERTON, QUOTED IN HIS OBITUARY, THE NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 11, 1968 "May God prevent us from becoming "right-thinking men" - that is to say men who agree perfectly with their own police." WILLIAM LLOYD CARRISON, LIFE (1885-89) V3 "Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being whatever may be the sex or complexion." ROBERT C. INCERSOLL, PROSE POEMS AND SELECTIONS 1884 "I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot." THOMAS JEFFERSON, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1801 "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable: that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression." JOHN F. KENNEDY, TELEVISION ADDRESS, JUNE 11, 1963 "This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened." MABYA MANNES, "A TIME FOR CHANGE," BUT WILL IT SELL? (1955-64) "The suppression of civil liberties is to many, less a matter for horror than the curtailment of the freedom to profit." RALPH W. SOCKMAN, SERMON, RIVERSIDE CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY, EC 13, 1964 "Government laws are needed to give us civil rights, and God is needed to make us civil." AESOP, "THE DOG AND THE WOLF," FABLES "Better starve free than be a fat slave." CICERO, DE OFFICIIS (44BC) 2.7.24 "Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered." THE MISHNA "He who destroys one life is as though he destroys a whole world." HIS HOLINESS, POPE JOHN PAUL II "...in its humanitarian concern, the Holy See strives to recommend clemency, even pardon, for those condemned to death, above all when these have been condemned for political reasons, which can moreover be very changeable, tied to the personality of those in power at the moment." THE QUR'AN "Save those who repent before ye overpower them. For know that Allah is Forgiving." SRI AUROBINDO "War, capital punishment, the taking of human life, cruelty of all kinds whether committed by the individual, the state or society, not only physical cruelty, but moral cruelty, the degradation of any human being or any class of human beings under whatever specious plea or in whatever interest, ... are crimes against the religion of humanity, abominable to its ethical mind, forbidden by its primary tenets, to be fought against always, in no degree to be tolerated." THE DHAMMAPADA "All men tremble at punishment. All men fear death. Likening others to oneself. One should neither slay nor cause to slay. Who so, himself seeking happiness inflicts punishment upon beings who also desire happiness. He will not attain happiness hereafter." "Hatred does not cease by hatred: hatred ceases only by love; this is the eternal law." THE SIKH SCRIPTURE, GURU GRANTH SAHIB "Where there is Divine Knowledge there is Righteousness; where there is Falsehood there is Sin. Where there is Greed there is Death but where there is Forgiveness there is God." HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA OF TIBET, TENZIN GYATSO "Strictly speaking from a Mahayana Buddhist point of view, taking of life generally is prohibited and the practice of compassion an essential ingredient..." "Deep down we must have real affection for each other, a clear recognition of our shared human status. At the same time we must openly accept all ideologies and systems as means of solving humanity's problems. No matter how strong the wind of evil may blow, the flame of truth cannot be extinguished." JANE ADDAMS "What after all has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities and courage to advocate them?" THE FORGOTTEN PRISONERS, THE ARTICLE IN THE OBSERVER, IN WHICH PETER BENENSON ANNOUNCED THE FOUNDING OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Open your newspaper any day of the week and you find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinion or religion are unacceptable to his government. There are several million such people in prison - by no means all of them behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains - and their numbers are growing. The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust all over the world could be united into common action, something effective could be done." "Pressure of opinion a hundred years ago brought about the emancipation of the slaves. It is now for man to insist upon the same freedom for his mind as he has won for his body." EDMUND BURKE "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." BENJAMIN NATHAN CARDOZA "Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom." WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT DU BOIS "The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression." WILLIAM FAULKNER "Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world, in thousands of rooms like this one, would do this, it would change the earth." MAHATMA GANDHI The strong and the weak have alike a right to Justice." HENRIK IBSEN The spirit of truth, and the spirit of freedom - they are the pillars of society." THOMAS JEFFERSON "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." IMMANUEL KANT "There can be nothing more dreadful than that the actions of a man should be subject to the will of another". ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, ADVOCATING FOR THE USA THE APPROVAL OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 9 DECEMBER, 1948 "We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This Universal Declaration of Human Rights may well become the international magna carta of all men everywhere....Man must have freedom to develop his full stature and through common effort to raise the level of human dignity." JEAN PAUL SARTRE "Disavowed - sometimes very quietly - but systematically practised behind a facade of democratic legality, torture has now acquired the status of a semi-clandestine institution." "The purpose of torture is not only the extortion of confessions, of betrayal: the victim must disgrace himself, by his screams and his submission, like a human animal. In the eyes of everybody and in his own eyes. He who yields under torture is not only to be made to talk, but is also to be marked as sub-human." HENRY DAVID THOREAU "Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison...the only house in a slave state in which a free man can abide with honour." VOLTAIRE "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." "Liberty of thought is the life of the soul." HARTMANN VON AUE "He who helps in the saving of others, saves himself as well." ELIE WIESEL, LAUREATE OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR PEACE "The greatest evil today is indifference. To know and not to act is a way of consenting to these injustices. The planet has become a very small place. What happens in other countries affects us." NELSON MANDELA, CHICAGO TRIBUNE 178:3 SECTION 1, 27 JUNE 90) Equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental human rights which are not only inalienable but must, if necessary, be defended with the weapons of war." JAMES EARL CARTER, TIME 113:12, 26 MARCH 79 "In war, we offer our very lives as a matter of routine. We must be no less daring, no less steadfast in the pursuit of peace." POPE PAUL VI, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER 22:1, 25 APRIL 86 "If you want peace, work for justice." MAE WEST, VIVA 4:26, AUGUST 77 "I'm for peace. I have yet to wake up in the morning and hear a man say, I've just had a good war." RAMSEY CLARK "A right is not what someone gives you: it's what no one can take from you." GEORGE BERNARD SHAW "Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." BENJAMIN DISRAELI "Justice is truth in action." FREDERICK DOUGLASS "Human law may know no distinction among men in respect of rights, but human practice may." MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. "Morality cannot be legislated, but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless." LEVITICUS 24:22 "Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country. REVELATION 7:3 Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees. KENYAN PROVERB "Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It is lent to you by your children." MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., SPEECH WASHINGTON DC, 28 AUG 63 "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of heir character." GEORGE BERNARD SHAW "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE "The miserable have no other medicine but only hope." PASCAL, PESLES 5:298 "Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical." ST AUGUSTINE "Take away justice and what are kingdoms but great robberies." WILLIAM HARVARD 1710-1778, REGULUS "The greatest glory of a freeborn people is to transmit that freedom to their children." GOETHE "Let humanity ever be our goal." SAMUEL BUTLER 1612-1680, HUDIBRAS, PART 3 CANTO 3 "For justice, though she's painted blind, is to the weaker side inclined." CICERO, DE OFFICIIS, BOOK 1:19 "Nothing can be honourable where there is no justice." CONFUCIUS, ANALECTS "Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness." UNESCO CONSTITUTION, ATLEE AND MACLEISH 1946 Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed. BARRY COMMONER, MAKING PEACE WITH THE PLANET, 1990 "To make peace with the planet, we must make peace among the peoples who live in it." BELLO ABZUG, CENTRE FOR OUR COMMON FUTURE, NETWORK '92, OCTOBER 90 "Poverty is the ultimate form of pollution in a world out of balance with people's needs and its own future." TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, 1911-1983, IN NEW STATESMAN, 30 JANUARY 87 "We're all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress." NELSON MANDELA, QUOTED BY D. WOODS IN THE OBSERVER, 8 JANUARY 78 "There is no easy walk to freedom." MARTIN LUTHER KING JR, STRENGTH TO LOVE, CHAPTER 7 "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." JAMES BALDWIN, NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME, 1961 "Freedom is not something that anybody can be given: freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be? FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT, 1882 - 1945, PUBLIC PAPERS 4:556 1941 "When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries everywhere is in danger. REINHOLD HIEBHUR, CHILDREN OF LIGHT AND CHILDREN OF DARKNESS 1944 "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." JOHN LENNON AND PAUL McCARTNEY, 1969 "All we are saying, is give peace a chance." MALCOLM X, MALCOLM X SPEAKS, 1965 "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." PASTOR MARTIN NIEMOLLER, A PROTESTANT MINISTER IMPRISONED DURING GERMANY'S THIRD REICH "In Germany they first came for the Communists; I did not speak because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews: I did not speak because I was not a Jew. Then they came to fetch the workers, members of trade unions; I was not a trade unionist. Afterward, they came for the Catholics; I did not say anything because I was a Protestant. Eventually they came for me, and there was no one left to speak." THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1799 "I am for freedom of religion and against all manoeuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another." JOHN F KENNEDY "The rights of all men are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."