The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen) is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of "natural right", the rights of man are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself.
Read more about Declaration Of The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen: History, Philosophic and Theoretical Context, Substance, Legacy, Other Early Declarations of Rights
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“Ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the only causes of public misfortunes and of the corruption of governments.”
—French National Assembly. Declaration of the Rights of Man (drafted and discussed Aug. 1789, published Sept. 1791)
“Every declaration of love contains an unstated list of exceptions and demands.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.”
—French National Assembly. Declaration of the Rights of Man (Sept. 1791)
“... the constructive power of an image is not measured in terms of its truth, but of the love it inspires.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 15 (1962)
“Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once,
And He that might the vantage best have took
Found out the remedy. How would you be
If He which is the top of judgment should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that,
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“To be a born American citizen seems a guarantee against pauperism; and this, perhaps, springs from the virtue of a vote.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)