natural rights
in a sentence

The American Declaration of Independence listed "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as natural rights.
natural rights = rights that are naturally due because of human nature and the natural condition

Natural rights are also called universal rights.

This led to the thought that there exists a universal right-ness, the so-called natural law.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

To take it away would be a violation of its natural right to live.† (source)

It had been drawn up by George Mason, who wrote that "all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights ....among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty."† (source) David McCullough, John Adams, 2002

They were in fact, exercising their natural rights to extricate themselves from illegal kidnapping.† (source) Alexs Pate, Amistad, 1997

The individual feels more than ever dependent on society, but he feels this dependence not in the positive sense, cradled, connected as part of an organic whole; he sees it as a threat to his natural rights, and even his economic existence.† (source)

The results should have been predictable, since a human being has no natural rights of any nature.† (source)

The people must cede some of their natural rights to the government to give it some powers.† (source)

Not that Alvin could talk about natural rights and such out loud.† (source) Orson Scott Card, Red Prophet, 1988

Yet she was maddened by the thought he had even the right to appeal; her greatest anger was directed against the sentimentalists and theoreticians, whom she thought of as "They"—the lawmakers and the Civil Service—who interfered with the natural right of a white farmer to treat his labor as he pleased.† (source)

The declaration on the rights of the citizen had not included any article on women's natural rights.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

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That was what they meant by natural rights.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

He held that women had the same 'natural rights' as men.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

They fought actively for what they called the 'natural rights' of the citizen.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

So Marx didn't believe in a natural right that was eternally valid.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

We still speak of a 'natural right' which can often be in conflict with the laws of the land.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

And we constantly find individuals, or even whole nations, that claim this 'natural right' when they rebel against anarchy, servitude, and oppression.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

In other words, he believed in the idea of a natural right, and that was a rationalistic feature of his thought.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

We have come across this idea of a so-called natural right in many philosophers from Socrates to Locke.† (source) Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, 1991

Or wasn't that their natural right, to know the truth so as to be able to let the truth lead them to do good or evil, as they chose?† (source) Orson Scott Card, Red Prophet, 1988

Before the bench in the second-floor Council Chamber of the Province House in Boston, Otis had declared such writs—which were perfectly valid in English law and commonly issued in England—null and void because they violated the natural rights of Englishmen.† (source) David McCullough, John Adams, 2002

But this case is also about the natural rights of all men who were born free and have lived as such throughout their lives.† (source) Alexs Pate, Amistad, 1997

A tone of absolute clarity and elevated thought was established in the opening lines, in a Preamble, a new feature in constitutions, affirming the old ideal of the common good founded on a social compact: The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government is to secure the existence of the body politic; to protect it; and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying, in safety and tranquility, their natural rights and the blessings of life; and whenever these great objects are not obtained, the people have a right to alter the government, and to take measures necessary for their safety, happiness, and prosperity.† (source) David McCullough, John Adams, 2002

My life's aspiration is to not rest until the noble blacks of the Amistad are freed and returned to their native soil, and your clients are made to pay the highest price for their transgressions against God and the natural right of all men to maintain their own freedom.† (source) Alexs Pate, Amistad, 1997

Written in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions declared that each state had a "natural right" to nullify federal actions it deemed unconstitutional.† (source) David McCullough, John Adams, 2002

Bring them to a state where saying I want' is no longer a natural right, but a shameful admission.† (source) Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

C. We are a mighty race and have a natural right to subjugate their puny one.† (source)

But if ever you hear a man telling you that you must be happy, that it's your natural right, that your first duty is to yourself—that will be the man who's not after your soul.† (source) Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

Publicity is a noble, beneficent, and universal right.† (source) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, 1900

Poor indemnity for natural rights of self-agency so pertinaciously, so insultingly denied!† (source) Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson, 1850

Enjolras expressed its divine right, and Combeferre its natural right.† (source) Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, 1862

I feel as if you had a natural right to order what you will from us.† (source)

Lip-lip continued so to darken his days that White Fang became wickeder and more ferocious than it was his natural right to be.† (source) Jack London, White Fang, 1906

All places of honor and of profit do belong, by natural right, to them that be of noble blood, and so these dignities in the army are their property and would be so without this or any rule.† (source)

Those words had been spoken in fluent German, however, and in a more definite tone; these now were halting and in broken German, a language to which she had no natural right, but was merely borrowing—just as Hans Castorp had heard her do a few times before, listening each time with a sense of superiority that was simultaneously cradled in humble delight.† (source) Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, 1924

And Swann was happy in spite of everything in feeling that if he, alone among mortals, had not the right to go to Pierrefonds that day, it was because he was in fact, for Odette, some one who differed from all other mortals, her lover; and because that restriction which for him alone was set upon the universal right to travel freely where one would, was but one of the many forms of that slavery, that love which was so dear to him.† (source) Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, 1913

The woman's need of him to enable her to carry on Nature's most urgent work, does not prevail against him until his resistance gathers her energy to a climax at which she dares to throw away her customary exploitations of the conventional affectionate and dutiful poses, and claim him by natural right for a purpose that far transcends their mortal personal purposes.† (source)

And my right to make that is simply the universal right of a man to enlighten a woman when he sees her unconsciously placed in a false position.† (source) Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, 1905

A brilliant future, a wider career, a conscience exempt from the reproach of interference between a young lady and her natural rights—these excellent things might be too troublesomely purchased.† (source) Henry James, Washington Square, 1880

The most thorough-going ascetic could feel that he had a natural right to wander on Egdon: he was keeping within the line of legitimate indulgence when he laid himself open to influences such as these.† (source)

We will not disparage this gentleman, because he is successful in his addresses to the beautiful object of his ambition; and we will not question her natural right to bestow her love on one whom she finds worthy of it.'† (source) Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, 1857

How should I look today in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively?† (source)

The most striking point in her appearance was the remarkable fixedness of this organ, which rested without impudence or defiance, but as if in conscientious exercise of a natural right, upon every object it happened to encounter.† (source)

This condition is essential to the power of the judicature, for to select that legal obligation by which he is most strictly bound is the natural right of every magistrate.† (source)

Now, sir, if the fugitive alight in some distant town, and find all the people babbling about that self-same dead man, whom he has fled so far to avoid the sight and thought of, will you not allow that his natural rights have been infringed?† (source)

Their right to independence will be the natural right of self-government belonging to any community strong enough to maintain it—distinct in position, origin and character, and free from any mutual obligations of membership of a common political body, binding it to others by the duty of loyalty and compact of public faith.† (source)

As these privileges came to them by inheritance, they regard them in some sort as a portion of themselves, or at least as a natural right inherent in their own persons.† (source)

Thus the parent has not only a natural right, but he acquires a political right, to command them: he is the author and the support of his family; but he is also its constituted ruler.† (source)

You are not to credit the idle tales you hear of Natty; he has a kind of natural right to gain a livelihood in these mountains; and if the idlers in the village take it into their heads to annoy him, as they sometimes do reputed rogues, they shall find him protected by the strong arm of the law,† (source)

The municipal authorities were bound to enforce the sending of children to school by their parents; they were empowered to inflict fines upon all who refused compliance; and in case of continued resistance society assumed the place of the parent, took possession of the child, and deprived the father of those natural rights which he used to so bad a purpose.† (source)

In perusing this report, which is evidently drawn up by an experienced hand, one is astonished at the facility with which the author gets rid of all arguments founded upon reason and natural right, which he designates as abstract and theoretical principles.† (source)

In this first parliament every man, by natural right, will have a seat.† (source) Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR.† (source) Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance.† (source) Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers.† (source)

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natural rightsin a sentence

natural rights
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