“It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.”

—  Bruce Lee , book Tao of Jeet Kune Do

The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Source: Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men." by Bruce Lee?
Bruce Lee photo
Bruce Lee 193
Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and f… 1940–1973

Related quotes

Eric Hoffer photo

“It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 140
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Tony Benn photo

“[Men] who would rather go to jail than betray what they believe to be their duty to their fellow workers and the principles which they hold.”

Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician

From an issued statement from Mr. Benn on five dockers imprisoned for contempt of court (21 July 1972)
1970s

Howard Zinn photo

“If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991): "Obligation to the State" http://www.ecn.cz/temelin/textonly/state_zin.htm

“Thus men continue to accuse themselves of being unjust, violent, cruel, and treacherous to one another, but they do not accuse themselves of cutting the throats of other animals and of feeding upon their mangled limbs, which, nevertheless, is the single cause of that injustice, of that violence, of that cruelty, and of that treachery. … Men believe themselves to be just, provided that they fulfil, in regard to their fellows, the duties which have been prescribed to them. But it is goodness which is the justice of man; and it is impossible, I repeat it, to be good towards one's fellow without being so towards other existences.”

Jean-Antoine Gleizes (1773–1843) French writer

Thalysie: the New Existence. Quoted in The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-eating https://archive.org/stream/ethicsofdietcate00will/ethicsofdietcate00will#page/n3/mode/2up by Howard Williams (London: F. Pitman, 1883), p. 214.

Thurgood Marshall photo

“At a time in our history when the streets of the Nation's cities inspire fear and despair, rather than pride and hope, it is difficult to maintain objectivity and concern for our fellow citizens. But, the measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis. No nation in the recorded history of man has a greater tradition of revering justice and fair treatment for all its citizens in times of turmoil, confusion, and tension than ours. This is a country which stands tallest in troubled times, a country that clings to fundamental principles, cherishes its constitutional heritage, and rejects simple solutions that compromise the values that lie at the roots of our democratic system.”

Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, Concurring opinion (January 17, 1972)

Norman Mailer photo

“Tolstoy teaches us that compassion is of value and enriches our life only when compassion is severe, which is to say when we can perceive everything that is good and bad about a character but are still able to feel that the sum of us as human beings is probably a little more good than awful”

Norman Mailer book The Naked and the Dead

Mailer's Introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition (1998)
The Naked and the Dead (1948)
Context: For that is the genius of the old man — Tolstoy teaches us that compassion is of value and enriches our life only when compassion is severe, which is to say when we can perceive everything that is good and bad about a character but are still able to feel that the sum of us as human beings is probably a little more good than awful … That fine edge in Tolstoy, the knowledge that compassion is valueless without severity (for otherwise it cannot defend itself against sentimentality), gave The Naked and the Dead whatever enduring virtue it may possess and catapulted the amateur who wrote it into the grim ranks of those successful literary men and women who are obliged to become professional in order to survive …

“Justice, under capitalism, works not from a notion of obedience to moral law, or to conscience, or to compassion, but from the assumption of a duty to preserve a social order and the legal “rights” that constitute that order, especially the just which preserves the system of justice even if the system is itself routinely unjust.”

Curtis White (1951) American academic

"The spirit of disobedience: an invitation to resistance"

Lysander Spooner photo

“If there be in nature such a principle as justice, it is necessarily the only political principle there ever was, or ever will be. All the other so-called political principles, which men are in the habit of inventing, are not principles at all. They are either the mere conceits of simpletons, who imagine they have discovered something better than truth, and justice, and universal law; or they are mere devices and pretences, to which selfish and knavish men resort as means to get fame, and power, and money.”

Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) Anarchist, Entrepreneur, Abolitionist

Section VIII, p. 15
Natural Law; or The Science of Justice (1882), Chapter II. The Science of Justice (Continued)

Edward Jenks photo

“The thegn who deems an unjust doom is to lose his thegnship. It is a principle which can be widely applied”

Edward Jenks (1861–1939) British legal scholar

Source: A Short History Of The English Law (First Edition) (1912), Chapter I, Old English Law, p. 7

“If we don’t view our fellow activists as human beings rather than symbols of what’s right or wrong with the movement, then whom are we fighting for?”

Sarah Seltzer

Remembering Pioneering Feminist Shulamith Firestone http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/174721/jewish-feminist-shulamith-firestones-lessons/?utm_source=t.co&utm_campaign=&utm_content=general-general&utm_medium=jd.fo-other#ixzz2QH2HKUQg "Jewish Daily Forward," April 11, 2013

Related topics