Quotes about right
page 78

Richard Arkwright photo

“No sooner were the merits of Mr. Arkwright’s inventions fully understood, from the great increase of materials produced in a given time, and the superior quality of the goods manufactured; no sooner was it known, that his assiduity and great mechanical abilities were rewarded with success; than the very men, who had before treated him with contempt and derision, began to devise means to rob him of his inventions, and profit by his ingenuity. Every attempt that cunning could suggest for this purpose was made; by the seduction of his servants and workmen, (whom he had with great labour taught the business) a knowledge of his machinery and inventions was fully gained. From that time many persons began to pilfer something from him; and then by adding something else of their own, and by calling similar productions and machines by other names, they hoped to screen themselves from punishment. So many of these artful and designing individuals had at length infringed on his patent right, that he found it necessary to prosecute several: but it was not without great difficulty, and considerable expence, that he was able to make any proof against them; conscious that their conduct was unjustifiable, their proceedings were conducted with the utmost caution and secresy. Many of the persons employed by them were sworn to secresy, and their buildings and workshops were kept locked up, or otherwise secured. This necessary proceeding of Mr. Arkwright, occasioned, as in the case of poor Hargrave, an association against him, of the very persons whom he had served and obliged. Formidable, however, as it was, Mr. Arkwright persevered, trusting that he should obtain in the event, that satisfaction which he appeared to be justly entitled to.”

Richard Arkwright (1732–1792) textile entrepreneur; developer of the cotton mill

Source: The Case of Mr. Richard Arkwright and Co., 1781, p. 23-24

Boutros Boutros-Ghali photo
Rob Thomas photo

“I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell; I know right now you can't tell; But stay a while and maybe then you'll see; A different side of me”

Rob Thomas (1972) American singer

"Unwell" (from the Matchbox Twenty Album More Than You Think You Are)

Roderick Long photo
Alastair Reynolds photo
Antonin Artaud photo

“So long as we have failed to eliminate any of the causes of human despair, we do not have the right to try to eliminate those means by which man tries to cleanse himself of despair.”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

General Security: The Liquidation of Opium (1925)

Enoch Powell photo
Albert Marquet photo

“Over the course of the war I came to understand a lot. The Communists are right... It's terrible that many people haven't understood anything and want to return everything back..”

Albert Marquet (1875–1947) French artist

from the memoirs of Ilya Ehrenburg; as quoted by Mikhail Guerman, in Albert Marquet – The Paradox of Time, Parkstone Aurora Publishers, Bournemouth England, 1995, p. 82
Ilya Ehrenburg wrote that Marquet said him this shortly after the War, in 1946.

Nick Griffin photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Frank Chodorov photo
Owen Lovejoy photo

“So far as my right to life and liberty is concerned, I did not get it from Congress or Parliament. I did not get it from the Democratic Party. I did not get it from any evil spirits whose names commence with the same initials as the Democrats.”

Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician

As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838–64 https://web.archive.org/web/20160319081944/https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA234#v=onepage&q&f=false (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 234
1860s, Speech (October 1860)

Jerry Coyne photo
Matthew Stover photo
John Gray photo
Salil Shetty photo

“The question of the right to privacy must be one of the defining issues of our time.”

Salil Shetty (1961) human rights campaigner

World Economic Forum, Davos 2014: Top quotes of the day https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/01/top-10-quotes-day-davos-2014-one/, January 22, 2014

Gjorge Ivanov photo
Walter Lippmann photo
Sam Harris photo
Tomas Kalnoky photo
Ray Comfort photo

“I don't believe you're an ape: You're made in the image of God, with the knowledge of right and wrong.”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

AronRa vs Ray Comfort (September 17th, 2012), Radio Paul's Radio Rants

G. K. Chesterton photo

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist

A Short History of England (1917)

Robert Rauschenberg photo

“Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?”

Robert Orben (1928) American magician and writer

Ventura County Star staff (November 1, 2008) "Famous lasting words about elections - From Will Rogers to Yogi Berra, immortal quotations for Tuesday", Ventura County Star.
Attributed

Tom Stoppard photo
Colleen Fitzpatrick photo
Erich Ludendorff photo

“I will give up troops gladly as long as I know that they will be used in the right place to bring victory.”

Erich Ludendorff (1865–1937) German Army officer and later Nazi leader in Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch

"The Origins of the Military Dictatorship of Hindenburg and Ludendorff" by Jon Bridgman - 1960

George Herbert photo

“Do well and right, and let the world sink.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Country Parson, chapter xxix, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Massoud Barzani photo

“Declaration of a state(Kurdistan) is the legitimate right of the Kurdish nation. This goal should be realized, but without resorting to violence.”

Massoud Barzani (1946) Iraqi Kurdish politician

Kurdish nation
Source: President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Province Maso'ud Al-Barazani Threatens Turkey Not to Interfere in the Issue of Kirkuk and Declares: I Do Not Support Driving Israel to the Sea http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1423 April 2007

John Kenneth Galbraith photo
Tony Blair photo

“Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Hansard http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo051109/debtext/51109-03.htm#51109-03_spmin10, House of Commons, 6th series, vol. 439, col. 302.
9 November 2005, responding to Charles Kennedy in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions. Blair was referring to the likely defeat in Parliament of additional powers to detain terror suspects without charge, which happened later that day.
2000s

Aron Ra photo
Michael Shermer photo
William Randolph Hearst photo
Robert P. George photo
Eliphas Levi photo
William the Silent photo

“In all things there must be order, but it must of such a kind as is possible to observe … to see a man burnt for doing as he thought right, harms the people, for this is a matter of conscience.”

William the Silent (1533–1584) stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, leader of the Dutch Revolt

William at a meeting about Philips actions (1566), as quoted in William the Silent, William of Nausau, Prince of Orange, 1533-1584 (1944), p. 78

John F. Kennedy photo
Nico Perrone photo
Angela Merkel photo
Hillary Clinton photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Rose McGowan photo
Hugo Ball photo
Penn Jillette photo

“Freedom means the right to be stupid.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

Free FM Radio Show (15 September 2006)
2000s

Michael Swanwick photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Lee Child photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Ron Kaufman photo

“Hearing what you've done right is valuable. Hearing what you've done wrong can be priceless.”

Ron Kaufman (1956) American author and consultant

Lift Me UP! Service With A Smile (2005)

Mike Tyson photo

“I'm just a sucker even talking to you guys. I should be ready to rip your heads off your necks. But it's just not the right thing to do.”

Mike Tyson (1966) American boxer

http://www.boxing-monthly.co.uk/content/0008/three.htm
On the media

David Lloyd George photo

“Any intervention now would be a triumph for Germany! A military triumph! A war triumph! Intervention would have been for us a military disaster. Has the Secretary of State for War no right to express an opinion upon a thing which would be a military disaster? That is what I did, and I do not withdraw a single syllable. It was essential. I could tell the hon. Member how timely it was. I can tell the hon. Member it was not merely the expression of my own opinion, but the expression of the opinion of the Cabinet, of the War Committee, and of our military advisers. It was the opinion of every ally. I can understand men who conscientiously object to all wars. I can understand men who say you will never redeem humanity except by passive endurance of every evil. I can understand men, even—although I do not appreciate the strength of their arguments—who say they do not approve of this particular war. That is not my view, but I can understand it, and it requires courage to say so. But what I cannot understand, what I cannot appreciate, what I cannot respect, is when men preface their speeches by saying they believe in the war, they believe in its origin, they believe in its objects and its cause, and during the time the enemy were in the ascendant never said a word about peace; but the moment our gallant troops are climbing through endurance and suffering up the path of ascendancy begin to howl with the enemy.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1916/oct/11/statement-by-prime-minister in the House of Commons (11 October 1916)
Secretary of State for War

Adolf Eichmann photo
Grace Kelly photo

“To create harmony in the home is the woman's right and duty.”

Grace Kelly (1929–1982) American actress and Princess consort of Monaco

Attributed to Kelly in: Tom Tierney (1986) Grace Kelly: paper dolls in full color. p. 17

Piet Mondrian photo
Richard Nixon photo

“I would rather be a one-term President and do what I believe is right than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing America become a second-rate power and to see this Nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Address to the nation on the situation in Southeast Asia (30 April 1970); in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1970, p. 410
1970s

Amy Winehouse photo

“You'll never get my mind right
like 2 ships passing in the night.”

Amy Winehouse (1983–2011) English singer and songwriter

In My Bed
Song lyrics, Frank (2003)

Georg Brandes photo

“Young girls sometimes make use of the expression: “Reading books to read one’s self.” They prefer a book that presents some resemblance to their own circumstances and experiences. It is true that we can never understand except through ourselves. Yet, when we want to understand a book, it should not be our aim to discover ourselves in that book, but to grasp clearly the meaning which its author has sought to convey through the characters presented in it. We reach through the book to the soul that created it. And when we have learned as much as this of the author, we often wish to read more of his works. We suspect that there is some connection running through the different things he has written and by reading his works consecutively we arrive at a better understanding of him and them. Take, for instance, Henrik Ibsen’s tragedy, “Ghosts.” This earnest and profound play was at first almost unanimously denounced as an immoral publication. Ibsen’s next work, “An Enemy of the People,” describes, as is well known the ill-treatment received by a doctor in a little seaside town when he points out the fact that the baths for which the town is noted are contaminated. The town does not want such a report spread; it is not willing to incur the necessary expensive reparation, but elects instead to abuse the doctor, treating him as if he and not the water were the contaminating element. The play was an answer to the reception given to “Ghosts,” and when we perceive this fact we read it in a new light. We ought, then, preferably to read so as to comprehend the connection between and author’s books. We ought to read, too, so as to grasp the connection between an author’s own books and those of other writers who have influenced him, or on whom he himself exerts an influence. Pause a moment over “An Enemy of the People,” and recollect the stress laid in that play upon the majority who as the majority are almost always in the wrong, against the emancipated individual, in the right; recollect the concluding reply about that strength that comes from standing alone. If the reader, struck by the force and singularity of these thoughts, were to trace whether they had previously been enunciated in Scandinavian books, he would find them expressed with quite fundamental energy throughout the writings of Soren Kierkegaard, and he would discern a connection between Norwegian and Danish literature, and observe how an influence from one country was asserting itself in the other. Thus, by careful reading, we reach through a book to the man behind it, to the great intellectual cohesion in which he stands, and to the influence which he in his turn exerts.”

Georg Brandes (1842–1927) Danish literature critic and scholar

Source: On Reading: An Essay (1906), pp. 40-43

Samuel Palmer photo

“The "rights of man" are the right of the less voracious to restrain those who are more so.”

Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker

Letter to the Rev. J.P. Wright (1879), from The Life and letters of Samuel Palmer, Painter and Etcher (AH Palmer, London, 1892)

John Steinbeck photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“Why, Stephen, if I am right, it means that the Machine is conducting our future for us not only simply in direct answer to our direct questions, but in general answer to the world situation and to human psychology as a whole. And to know that may make us unhappy and may hurt our pride. The Machine cannot, must not, make us unhappy.
"Stephen, how do we know what the ultimate good of Humanity will entail? We haven't at our disposal the infinite factors that the Machine has at its! Perhaps, to give you a not unfamiliar example, our entire technical civilization has created more unhappiness and misery than it has removed. Perhaps an agrarian or pastoral civilization, with less culture and less people would be better. If so, the Machines must move in that direction, preferably without telling us, since in our ignorant prejudices we only know that what we are used to, is good—and we would then fight change. Or perhaps a complete urbanization, or a completely caste-ridden society, or complete anarchy, is the answer. We don't know. Only the Machines know, and they are going there and taking us with them."
"But you are telling me, Susan, that the 'Society for Humanity' is right; and that Mankind has lost its own say in its future."
"It never had any, really. It was always at the mercy of economic and sociological forces it did not understand—at the whims of climate, and the fortunes of war. Now the Machines understand them; and no one can stop them, since the Machines will deal with them as they are dealing with the Society,—having, as they do, the greatest of weapons at their disposal, the absolute control of our economy."
"How horrible!”

"Perhaps how wonderful! Think, that for all time, all conflicts are finally evitable. Only the Machines, from now on, are inevitable!"
“The Evitable Conflict”, p. 192
I, Robot (1950)

Harriet Harman photo

“I'm afraid you gave up the right to pontificate on social mobility when you abolished educational maintenance allowance [EMA], trebled tuition fees and betrayed a generation of young people.”

Harriet Harman (1950) British politician

On Nick Clegg's social mobility pledges, during a debate in the House of Commons http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/05/nick-clegg-child-poverty-social-mobility, 5 April 2011.

Donovan photo

“I'll tell you right now
Any trick in the book now, baby, all that I can find…”

Donovan (1946) Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist

"Sunshine Superman"
Sunshine Superman (1966)

Nasreddin photo
Xun Zi photo

“A questioner asks: If human nature is evil, then where do ritual and rightness come from? I reply: ritual and rightness are always created by the conscious activity of the sages.”

Xun Zi (-313–-238 BC) Ancient Chinese philosopher

Sources of Chinese Tradition (1999), vol. 1, p. 180
Human nature is evil

Nelson Mandela photo
Harry Truman photo
George Mason photo

“Only veganism respects nonhuman rights and rejects nonhuman enslavement.”

Joan Dunayer American activist

Speciesism (Derwood, MD: Ryce Publishing, 2004), p. 156.

Baruch Spinoza photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Norman G. Finkelstein photo
Tim Johnson photo

“Of course, I believe I have an unfair edge over most of my colleagues right now. My mind works faster than my mouth does. Washington would probably be a better place if more people took a moment to think before they spoke.”

Tim Johnson (1946) United States Senator from South Dakota

First public appearance after experiencing a brain hemorrhage, 28 August 2007
[Carson, Walker, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ailing_senator_return, Ailing S.D. Sen. Johnson: 'I am back', Yahoo! News, Associated Press, 28 August 2007, 2007-08-29]

Dylan Moran photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Patrick Pearse photo
Norman Mailer photo
Scott Derrickson photo
Al Hurricane photo
John L. Lewis photo
George Mason photo

“Habituated from our Infancy to trample upon the Rights of Human Nature, every generous, every liberal Sentiment, if not extinguished, is enfeebled in our Minds.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Virginia Charters (1773)

Tom Lantos photo

“Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask for a moment of silence here in this chamber to remember our fallen colleague, my predecessor representing the San Francisco Peninsula in Congress, Leo Ryan, and to honor his work for justice and human rights.”

Tom Lantos (1928–2008) American politician

"Congressman Tom Lantos' Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Tragedy at Jonestown and the Death of Congressman Leo Ryan," United States Congressional Record (2003-11-17

S.M. Stirling photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Franz Kafka photo
Edmund Burke photo

“In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But the works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Speech at Bristol Previous to the Election http://books.google.com/books?id=DAAUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA435&dq=%22we+are+generally+cold,+and+languid,+and+sluggish%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=D4TSUuXqDYrekQe6uoH4Cw&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22we%20are%20generally%20cold%2C%20and%20languid%2C%20and%20sluggish%22&f=false (6 September 1780)
1780s

Donald J. Trump photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“I want to defend fracking under the right circumstances… I want to defend this stuff. And you know, I'm already at odds with the most organized and wildest [of the environmental movement]. They come to my rallies and they yell at me and, you know, all the rest of it. They say, 'Will you promise never to take any fossil fuels out of the earth ever again?”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

No. I won't promise that. Get a life, you know.
Private meeting with the Building Trades Union (9 September 2015), WikiLeaks. Quoted in "Clinton to environmentalists: 'Get a life'" http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-to-environmentalists-get-a-life/article/2604626 by John Siciliano, Washington Examiner (15 October 2016).
Attributed

Jack McDevitt photo

“Technological civilizations don’t last long. You're all right until you get a printing press. Then a race starts between technology and common sense. And maybe technology always wins.”

Jack McDevitt (1935) American novelist, Short story writer

Source: Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Cauldron (2007), Chapter 27 (pp. 248-249)