“Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.”

— Denis Diderot

The quote "Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who o…" is famous quote attributed to Denis Diderot (1713–1784), French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist.

As quoted in The Golden Treasury of Thought : A Gathering of Quotations from the Best Ancient and Modern Authors (1873) by Theodore Taylor, p. 227

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 18, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Denis Diderot 106

French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist 1713–1784

Related quotes

“Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

La puissance qui s'acquiert par la violence n'est qu'une usurpation, et ne dure qu'autant que la force de celui qui commande l'emporte sur celle de ceux qui obéissent.
Article on Political Authority, Vol. 1 (1751)
L'Encyclopédie (1751-1766)

“The collectivity is divided into two classes of people: those who, by virtue of their ownership of the means of doing, command others to do, and those who, by virtue of the fact that they are deprived of access to the means of doing, do what the others tell them to do.”

John Holloway book Change the World Without Taking Power

Change the World Without Taking Power (2002)

“It is incumbent upon everyone to aid those daysprings of authority and sources of command who are adorned with the ornamant of equity and justice.”

Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892) founder of the Bahá'í Faith

Kitáb-i-`Ahd http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TB/tb-16.html (Book of the Covenant)

“For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading.”

William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) American philosopher

Preface (20 May 1926), p. vii.
Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926)
Context: For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading. In the dispersed sovereignty of modern states, and especially in times of rapid social change, law must look to the future as well as to history and precedent, and to what is possible and right as well as to what is actual.

“With regard to the abuse of authority, this also may come about in two ways. First, when what is ordered by an authority is opposed to the object for which that authority was constituted (if, for example, some sinful action is commanded or one which is contrary to virtue, when it is precisely for the protection and fostering of virtue that authority is instituted). In such a case, not only is there no obligation to obey the authority, but one is obliged to disobey it, as did the holy martyrs who suffered death rather than obey the impious commands of tyrants. Secondly, when those who bear such authority command things which exceed the competence of such authority; as, for example, when a master demands payment from a servant which the latter is not bound to make, and other similar cases. In this instance the subject is free to obey or disobey.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

in Aquinas: Selected Political Writings (Basil Blackwell: 1974), p. 183
Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

According to a Snopes message board http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=278, the earliest known reference dates to the late 1990s.
Misattributed