“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”
Elie Wiesel (A Romanian-born Jewish writer, professor, political activist, and Nobel Laureate)
“Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in...A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (a Russian novelist, historian, and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union)
“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma)
“We are asking people to understand that slavery still exists today; in fact, according to a recent New York Times article, if you count the number of women and children in bonded labor, domestic slavery or sexual slavery today, there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history.”
Charlotte Bunch (American activist, author and organizer in women's and human rights movement)
“Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.”
Tenzin Gyatso ( The current, 14th Dalai Lama)
“Most of our citizenry believes that hunger only affects people who are lazy or people who are just looking for a handout, people who don’t' want to work, but, sadly, that is not true. Over one-third of our hungry people are innocent children who are members of households that simply cannot provide enough food or proper nutrition. And to think of the elderly suffering from malnutrition is just too hard for most of us. Unlike Third World nations, in our country the problem is not having too little – it is about not caring enough! Write your elected representatives and promote support for the hungry.”
Erin Brockovich (American legal clerk and environmental activist)
“In a nutshell, this United Nations non-profit organization [World Food Programme] feeds millions of starving children at schools in third world countries as an incentive for them to attend school, which in turn might better their futures. They do so much more but I was so struck by this story.”
Sheryl Crow (American singer and song writer)
“The fact is that there is enough food in the world for everyone. But tragically, much of the world's food and land resources are tied up in producing beef and other livestock – food for the well off – while millions of children and adults suffer from malnutrition and starvation.”
Dr. Walden Bello (Filipino author, academic, and political analyst)
“35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don't know where their next meal is coming from, and 13 million of them are children. If another country were doing this to our children, we'd be at war. ”
Jeff Bridges (American actor, singer and producer)
“We need to stop the dying and start the living; stop the hunger and start the hoping.”
Penelope Cruz (Spanish actress and model)