Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about justice

171 quotes from 112 people

Most readBy personPage 8 of 12

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Desmond Tutu1931–2021As quoted in Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (1984) by Robert McAfee Brown, p. 19
As there can be no second class citizens before the law of America, so⁠—we believe⁠—there can be no second-class nations before the law of the world community.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Address at the Philadelphia Convention Hall (1956)
- Laws
We have not taken and we shall not take a single backward step. There must be no second class citizens in this country.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Letter to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (June 6, 1953)
- America
We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919Inaugural Address (1905)
- War & Peace
An unjust law is itself a species of violence.
Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948Non-Violence in Peace & War (1962) Vol. 2, edited by Mahadev Haribhai Desai, p. 144
- Laws
I don’t think you and I are very closely related, however, if you are capable of trembling with indignation each time that an injustice is committed anywhere in the world, we are comrades, and that is more important.
Che Guevara1928–1967Letter to María Rosario Guevara, 20 February 1964. Quoted in Guerrillas in Power: The Course of the Cuban Revolution (1971) by K. S. Karol
I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.
Malcolm X1925–1965The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 400
- Truth & Lies
Justice means a man’s hope should not be limited by the color of his skin.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973State of the Union Address (1966)
- Race
It is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that they’re going on.
Julian Assangeborn 1971Talk at the Oslo Freedom Forum (April 2010)
- Knowledge
When you go to prison they forget it’s your Constitution, too.
Jimmy Hoffa1913–1975Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 12, Convict, p. 187
- Laws
How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968“How Long, Not Long”, speech at the Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery (25 March 1965); the image is the abolitionist Theodore Parker’s, from a sermon of 1853
- Hope
Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973We Shall Overcome (1965)
- Race
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy1925–1968Day of Affirmation Address, University of Cape Town (6 June 1966)
- Courage
- Hope
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel1928–2016Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo (10 December 1986)
- Good & Evil
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind then that I was not one bit better than the meanest on Earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926Statement to the Court (1918)
- Freedom