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Quotes of the Day for 15 December 2004 - Rights

Today is Bill of Rights Day in the US, the anniversary of their ratification on this day in 1791 with approval from the Virginia legislature. Today's quotes remind us of the importance of that document, and the ongoing need to guard against erosion of those hard-won rights in our time.

The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.
     - Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.
     - Alexander Hamilton, 1755 - 1804

But even in wartime, the Constitution doesn't protect just freedom of popular speech, or the right to support the government, or the expression of political views that don't make anyone mad.
     - Steve Chapman

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.
     - Thomas Jefferson, 1743 - 1826

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart - the best brain. The superior man ... stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
     - Robert Green Ingersoll, 1833 - 1899

You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do.
     - Judith Martin

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