The main business of religions is to purify control and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.

Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had Mother Church ranks at the very top a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism... to ward off threats to her own security and influence.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

If liberty and equality as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

There's a beauty in being part of a band when there's equality and trust.

Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth beauty liberty and equality are of infinite value but in thinking that man can get them for himself without grace.

I think it has other roots has to do in part with a general anxiety in contemporary life... nuclear bombs inequality of possibility and chance inequality of goods allotted to us a kind of general racist unjust attitude that is pervasive.

My attitude to peace is rather based on the Burmese definition of peace - it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not mean just putting an end to violence or to war but to all other factors that threaten peace such as discrimination such as inequality poverty.

What is being called the UN 'gender architecture' is more like a shack. Women need a bigger global house if equality is ever to become a reality.

Half a century ago the amazing courage of Rosa Parks the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens.