Top 100 Rights Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I Have a Dream”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Positive Quotes, Goal Quotes, Change Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes

2. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Life Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Leadership Quotes

3. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

— Desmond Tutu

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Morality Quotes, Taking Action Quotes, Challenges Quotes, Peace Quotes

4. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Resistance Quotes, Freedom Quotes, 4th Of July Quotes

5. “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Vision Quotes, Progress Quotes, Culture Quotes, Diversity Quotes

6. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Make A Difference Quotes, Changing the World Quotes, Moving Quotes, Justice Quotes

7. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Famous Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Thought Provoking Quotes

8. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Famous Quotes, Morality Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Struggle Quotes

9. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Acceptance Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Quotes About Hope

10. “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”

— Frederick Douglass

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Change Quotes, Action Quotes, Powerful Motivational Quotes, Meaningful Quotes

11. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

— Alice Walker

Also featured in: Quotes About Strength, Self-Worth Quotes, Motivational Quotes About Life, Short Inspiring Quotes, Empowerment Quotes

12. “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Also featured in: Giving Up Quotes, Intelligent Quotes, Quotes on Liberty

13. “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise!”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Self-Esteem Quotes, Poetry Quotes, Moving On Quotes

14. “Women and girls can do whatever they want. There is no limit to what we as women can accomplish.”

— Michelle Obama

Also featured in: Quotes About Strength, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Empowering Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes, Positive Quotes for Women

15. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Make A Difference Quotes, Morality Quotes, Values Quotes, Changing the World Quotes

16. “You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I’ll rise.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Quotes About Strength, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Poetry Quotes, Obstacles Quotes

17. “Feminist: A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Women, Hard Hitting Quotes, Women Empowerment Quotes

18. “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

— Frederick Douglass

Also featured in: Make A Difference Quotes

19. “If we aren’t intersectional, some of us, the most vulnerable, are going to fall through the cracks.”

— Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Also featured in: Identity Quotes, Diversity Quotes

20. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Empowerment Quotes, Fighting Quotes

21. “Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.”

— Bob Marley

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Resistance Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Being Strong Quotes

22. “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.”

— Elie Wiesel

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Suffering Quotes

23. “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

— Gloria Steinem

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Women

24. “Whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Keep Your Head Up Quotes

25. “Feminism is equality: politically; culturally; socially; economically. That’s it, that simple.”

— Emma Watson

Also featured in: Positive Quotes for Women, Strong Women Quotes

26. “Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

— Edward Snowden

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes

27. “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

— Marian Wright Edelman

Also featured in: Self-Esteem Quotes, Identity Quotes, Diversity Quotes, Quotes About Children

28. “I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman.”

— Helen Reddy

Also featured in: Quotes About Strength, Music Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Empowering Quotes, Positive Quotes for Women

29. “To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.”

— James Baldwin

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Resistance Quotes

30. “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

— Ayn Rand

Also featured in: Integrity Quotes, Relationship Quotes, Values Quotes, Life Philosophy Quotes

31. “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Powerful Quotes

32. “Achieving gender equality requires the engagement of women and men, girls and boys. It is everyone’s responsibility.”

— Ban Ki-Moon

Also featured in: Positive Quotes for Women, Responsibility Quotes, International Women's Day Quotes

33. “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”

— Malcolm X

Also featured in: Impact Quotes, Deep Quotes, Suffering Quotes

34. “Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Changing the World Quotes, Caring Quotes, Responsibility Quotes, Quotes About Children

35. “Empowering women is key to building a future we want.”

— Amartya Sen

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Women, International Women's Day Quotes

36. “Gender equality must become a lived reality.”

— Michelle Bachelet

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Women, Impact Quotes, Diversity Quotes

37. “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”

— Frederick Douglass

Also featured in: Integrity Quotes, Personality Quotes, Truth Quotes, Individuality Quotes

38. “Migration is an expression of the human aspiration for dignity, safety and a better future. It is part of the social fabric, part of our very make-up as a human family.”

— Ban Ki-Moon

Also featured in: Humanism Quotes, Quotes About the World

39. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Quotes About Strength, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Impact Quotes, Self-Worth Quotes

40. “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.”

— Malcolm X

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Empowerment Quotes, Taking Action Quotes, Resistance Quotes, Fighting Quotes

41. “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

— Malcolm X

Also featured in: Fighting Quotes, Truth Quotes, Different Quotes, Justice Quotes

42. “To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Morality Quotes, Changing the World Quotes, Conscience Quotes

43. “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Acceptance Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Culture Quotes, Diversity Quotes

44. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Acceptance Quotes, Culture Quotes, Diversity Quotes, Teaching Quotes

45. “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

— Audre Lorde

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Women, Motivational Quotes for Women, Overcoming Fear Quotes, Strong Women Quotes, Silence Quotes

46. “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Changing the World Quotes, Suffering Quotes

47. “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Also featured in: Harmony Quotes, Government Quotes, Country Quotes

48. “You deserve to take up space.”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Women, Self-Love Quotes, Acceptance Quotes, Individuality Quotes

49. “Fight and push harder for what you believe in, you’d be surprised, you are much stronger than you think.”

— Lady Gaga

Also featured in: Dedication Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Being Strong Quotes

50. “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”

— Ayn Rand

Also featured in: Focus Quotes, Empowering Quotes, Deep Quotes, Freedom Quotes