"Rights come from God, not from government"
About this Quote
The line borrows the glow of America’s founding rhetoric (“unalienable Rights” endowed by a “Creator”) while quietly narrowing who gets to define that Creator’s demands. It sounds ecumenical, even patriotic, but the subtext is gatekeeping: which God, whose interpretation, and which rights count? In practice, “God” functions less as a shared premise than as a rhetorical trump card that preempts compromise. You can’t negotiate with revelation.
Context matters because Moore built a national profile by defying federal court orders over religious displays and same-sex marriage. In that light, the quote doubles as a justification for civil disobedience from the bench: when human institutions clash with his moral certainties, the institutions lose. It’s a powerful populist move, too, recasting judges and bureaucrats as usurpers and positioning the speaker as a guardian of a prior, purer authority.
The brilliance and danger of the phrasing is its simplicity: it flatters believers, delegitimizes opponents, and turns constitutional disputes into tests of faith.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Moore, Roy. (n.d.). Rights come from God, not from government. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/rights-come-from-god-not-from-government-65408/
Chicago Style
Moore, Roy. "Rights come from God, not from government." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/rights-come-from-god-not-from-government-65408/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Rights come from God, not from government." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/rights-come-from-god-not-from-government-65408/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.





