Quotes about justice
171 quotes from 112 people
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.
John Rawls1921–2002A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter I, Section 1, pg. 3-4Rewriting unjust laws is a basic human right and fundamental obligation.
Huey P. Newton1942–1989“In Defense of Self-defense” I (June 20, 1967)
Rabindranath Tagore1861–1941Sādhanā: The Realisation of Life (1916)
Aung San Suu Kyiborn 1945In Quest of Democracy (1991)In addition to the teaching of truths the Law aims at the removal of injustice from mankind.
Maimonides1138–1204Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.32
Barack Obamaborn 1961Nobel Prize acceptance speech (December 2009)
William H. Seward1801–1872On the Irrepressible Conflict (1858)
Howard Zinn1922–2010Terrorism and War (2002)
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882The Fugitive Slave Law, a lecture in NYC (March 7, 1854)Procedural fairness and regularity are of the indispensable essence of liberty.
Robert H. Jackson1892–1954Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 224–25 (1953)People, beware of injustice, for injustice shall be darkness on the Day of Judgment.
MMuhammad571–632Sunni HadithNo fairer law in all the land
Than that death-dealers die by what they’ve planned.
Ovid43 BC–AD 17Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), Book I, lines 655–656 (tr. Len Krisak)You must intervene. You must interfere. And that is actually the motto of human rights.
Elie Wiesel1928–2016Commencement ceremony (Class of 2011) at Washington University in St. Louis.Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great.
Moses1393–1273 BCDeuteronomy 1:17 (KJV)But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Part II, Chapter 29, tr. Thomas CommonIn context