If the meanest man in the republic is deprived of his rights,then every man in the republic is deprived of his rights.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that the rights of even the least privileged individuals are integral to the rights of all.
Jane Addams' quote highlights the interconnectedness of human rights within a society. It suggests that if even the most marginalized person is denied their rights, it creates a ripple effect that undermines the rights of all individuals, emphasizing the importance of protecting the rights of every member within a community to ensure true justice and equality for all.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about social justice.
I might believe I had unusual talent if I did not know what good music was; I might enjoy half an hour's practice a day if I were busy and happy the rest of the time. You do not know what life means when all the difficulties are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning.
America's future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.
Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.
I am not one of those who believe - broadly speaking - that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted legislatures, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then we must remember that we have not had the chance.
Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.
National events determine our ideals, as much as our ideals determine national events.
A tyrant... is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
Evolution is not finished; reason is not the last word nor the reasoning animal the supreme figure of Nature. As man emerged out of the animal, so out of man the superman emerges.
Remembrance is a form of meeting.
I'm a liberal, but I'm not biased. Seriously.
If tomorrow were never to come, it would not be worth living today.
Our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, construed, hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it.
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