Quotes about justice

„This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other. They say in a single breath: "God and the liberty of man," "God and the dignity, justice, equality, fraternity, prosperity of men" — regardless of the fatal logic by virtue of which, if God exists, all these things are condemned to non-existence. For, if God is, he is necessarily the eternal, supreme, absolute master, and, if such a master exists, man is a slave; now, if he is a slave, neither justice, nor equality, nor fraternity, nor prosperity are possible for him. In vain, flying in the face of good sense and all the teachings of history, do they represent their God as animated by the tenderest love of human liberty: a master, whoever he may be and however liberal he may desire to show himself, remains none the less always a master. His existence necessarily implies the slavery of all that is beneath him. Therefore, if God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty — by ceasing to exist.“

—  Mikhail Bakunin, book God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„Nothing, in fact, is as universal or as ancient as the iniquitous and absurd; truth and justice, on the contrary, are the least universal, the youngest features in the development of human society.“

—  Mikhail Bakunin, book God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„Now I can do no more. We must trust to the Great Disposer of all Events and the Justice of our Cause. I thank God for this great opportunity of doing my Duty.“

—  Horatio Nelson Royal Navy Admiral 1758 - 1805

In response to the cheer that was raised after he sent the signal "England expects every Man will do his Duty.", as quoted in The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B. from His Lordship's Manuscripts (1810) by James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur, p. 667
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

„Laws of justice which Hammurabi, the wise king, established.“

—  Hammurabi sixth king of Babylon -1810 - -1750 BC

Epilogue to the Code of Hammurabi (translated by Leonard William King, 1910). i like potatoes

„Without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.“

—  Patrice Lumumba Congolese Prime Minister, cold war leader, executed 1925 - 1961

Letter to his wife (Congo, My Country)

„Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in… A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.“

—  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Russian writer 1918 - 2008

Source: Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals

„Justice is primarily a possible, but not a necessary, quality of a social order regulating the mutual relations of men. Only secondarily it is a virtue of man, since a man is just, if his behavior conforms to the norms of a social order supposed to be just. But what does it really mean to say that a social order is just? It means that this order regulates the behavior of men in a way satisfactory to all men, that is to say, so that all men find their happiness in it. The longing for justice is men's eternal longing for happiness. It is happiness that men cannot find alone, as an isolated individual, and hence seeks in society. Justice is social happiness. It is happiness guaranteed by a social order.“

—  Hans Kelsen Austrian lawyer 1881 - 1973

"What Is Justice?" (1952), published in What is Justice? (1957)

„Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. —BENJAMIN FRANKLIN“

—  Jodi Picoult, book Small Great Things

Source: Small Great Things

„If you want peace, work for justice.“

—  Pope Paul VI 262nd Pope of the Catholic Church 1897 - 1978

„We must stop constantly fighting for human rights and equal justice in an unjust system, and start building a society where equal rights are an integral part of the design.“

—  Jacque Fresco American futurist and self-described social engineer 1916 - 2017

Source: The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty, & War (2002), p. 33.

„The four absolutes we all have in our minds: love, justice, evil, and forgiveness.“

—  Ravi Zacharias Indian philosopher 1946

„Endurance is composed of four attributes: eagerness, fear, piety and anticipation (of death). so whoever is eager for Paradise will ignore temptations; whoever fears the fire of Hell will abstain from sins; whoever practices piety will easily bear the difficulties of life and whoever anticipates death will hasten towards good deeds.
Conviction has also four aspects to guard oneself against infatuations of sin; to search for explanation of truth through knowledge; to gain lessons from instructive things and to follow the precedent of the past people, because whoever wants to guard himself against vices and sins will have to search for the true causes of infatuation and the true ways of combating them out and to find those true ways one has to search them with the help of knowledge, whoever gets fully acquainted with various branches of knowledge will take lessons from life and whoever tries to take lessons from life is actually engaged in the study of the causes of rise and fall of previous civilizations.
Justice also has four aspects depth of understanding, profoundness of knowledge, fairness of judgment and dearness of mind; because whoever tries his best to understand a problem will have to study it, whoever has the practice of studying the subject he is to deal with, will develop a clear mind and will always come to correct decisions, whoever tries to achieve all this will have to develop ample patience and forbearance and whoever does this has done justice to the cause of religion and has led a life of good repute and fame.
Jihad is divided into four branches: to persuade people to be obedient to Allah; to prohibit them from sin and vice; to struggle (in the cause of Allah) sincerely and firmly on all occasions and to detest the vicious. Whoever persuades people to obey the orders of Allah provides strength to the believers; whoever dissuades them from vices and sins humiliates the unbelievers; whoever struggles on all occasions discharges all his obligations and whoever detests the vicious only for the sake of Allah, then Allah will take revenge on his enemies and will be pleased with Him on the Day of Judgment.“

—  Ali, book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

„In this distinct and separate existence of the judicial power, in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removable at pleasure, by the crown, consists one main preservative of the public liberty; which cannot subsist long in any state, unless the administration of common justice be in some degree separated both from the legislative and the also from the executive power.“

—  William Blackstone, book Commentaries on the Laws of England

Book I, ch. 7 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_bk1ch7.asp: Of the King's Prerogative.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769)
Context: In this distinct and separate existence of the judicial power, in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removable at pleasure, by the crown, consists one main preservative of the public liberty; which cannot subsist long in any state, unless the administration of common justice be in some degree separated both from the legislative and the also from the executive power. Were it joined with the legislative, the life, liberty, and property of the subject would be in the hands of arbitrary judges, whose decisions would be then regulated only by their own opinions, and not by any fundamental principles of law; which, though legislators may depart from, yet judges are bound to observe. Were it joined with the executive, this union might soon be an overbalance for the legislative. For which reason... effectual care is taken to remove all judicial power out of the hands of the king's privy council; who, as then was evident from recent instances might soon be inclined to pronounce that for law, which was most agreeable to the prince or his officers. Nothing therefore is to be more avoided, in a free constitution, than uniting the provinces of a judge and a minister of state.

„You, Socrates, began by saying that virtue can't be taught, and now you are insisting on the opposite, trying to show that all things are knowledge, justice, soundness of mind, even courage, from which it would follow that virtue most certainly can be taught.“

—  Protagoras pre-Socratic Greek philosopher -486 - -411 BC

As quoted in Protagoras by Plato

„A perverted people, should it attaint its liberty, is bound to lose this very soon, because it would be useless to try to impress upon such people that happiness lies in the practice of righteousness; that the reign of law is more powerful than the reign of tyrants, who are more inflexible, and all ought to submit to the wholesome severity of the law; that good morals, and not force, are the pillars of the law and that the exercise of justice is the exercise of liberty.“

—  Simón Bolívar Venezuelan military and political leader, South American libertador 1783 - 1830

As quoted in The World’s Great Speeches, Lewis Copeland and Lawrence Lamm, edit., Dover Publications Inc. (1958) p. 388
The Angostura Address (1819)

„By acting compassionately, by helping to restore justice and to encourage peace, we are acknowledging that we are all part of one another.“

—  Ram Dass American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now 1931 - 2019

„A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.“

—  Ralph Nader American consumer rights activist and corporate critic 1934

„Therefore the sight that is granted to your world penetrates within the Eternal Justice as the eye into the sea; for though from the shore it sees the bottom, in the open sea it does not, and yet the bottom is there but the depth conceals it.“

—  Dante Alighieri, book Paradiso

Canto XIX, lines 58–63 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

„I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.“

—  Rosa Parks African-American civil rights activist 1913 - 2005

Quoted in "Women of the Hall: Rosa Parks," http://womenshalloffame.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=117 Women's National Hall of Fame (undated); said upon her 77th birthday (1990-02-04)