Note the difference between a right and a privilege. A right, in the abstract, is a fact; it is not a thing to be given, established, or conferred; it is. Of the exercise of a right power may deprive me; of the right itself, never. Privilege, in the abstract, does not exist; there is no such thing. Rights recognized, privilege is destroyed.
Voltairine De Cleyre, “The Economic Tendency of Freethought,” in Liberty Vol. XI, #25 (February 15, 1890).
Categories
Voltairine De Cleyre
