If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.Denis Diderot
Chekhov was capable of casually tossing off deplorable comments in his letters, combined with a very modern anger against anti-Semitism.Tom Stoppard
A 'human right' is, by definition, timeless. It cannot adhere to some societies and not others, at some times and not at other times.Tom Stoppard
The idea that public safety, the safety of the innocent, is an absolute which trumps every other consideration, is tacitly abandoned in the way we live.Tom Stoppard
It is easily and often overlooked that when Thomas Jefferson asserted that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were inalienable human rights, he did so on the ground that they had been endowed by God, our Creator.Tom Stoppard
The idea that being human and having rights are equivalent - that rights are inherent - is unintelligible in a Darwinian world.Tom Stoppard
The thing about talking about human rights is that when one bears in mind the sharp end of it, one does not want to worry too much about semantics.Tom Stoppard
That I have the right to express myself freely at all times in all circumstances entails the idea that free speech is a 'basic human right' possessed by each individual, and, as such, trumps the interests of the society or group, including my neighbour.Tom Stoppard
