Quotes about justice
171 quotes from 112 people
They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.
William Penn1644–1718Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I, 46
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface, p. 63
Euripides481–407 BCBacchae, ll. 882–884 (Bartlett’s, 14th ed. 1968)
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Guardian (1713), No. 99
Frederick Douglass1817–1895Lessons of the Hour (1894)Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Prejudices, Third Series (1922), Ch. 3The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.
John Rawls1921–2002A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter I, Section 3, pg. 12A punishment that penalizes without forestalling is indeed called revenge.
Albert Camus1913–1960Reflections on the Guillotine (1957)Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.
Arthur C. Clarke1917–2008“Maelstrom II” (1965)Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Guardian (1713), No. 99The object of punishment is, prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
Horace Mann1796–1859Lectures on Education (1855), Lecture 7
Malcolm X1925–1965Malcolm X Speaks (1965), p. 111
Aristotle384–322 BCNicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, 1155a.26
Maimonides1138–1204Sefer Hamitzvot [Book of the Commandments], commentary on Negative Commandment 290, as translated by Charles B. Chavel (1967)
Winston Churchill1874–1965United Europe Meeting, Albert Hall, London (May 14, 1947). Cited in Churchill by Himself, ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs (2008), p. 26