“There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.”
No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)
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Joseph Addison 226
politician, writer and playwright 1672–1719Related quotes
“Justice is happiness according to virtue.”
Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter V, Section 48, p. 310
De l'esprit or, Essays on the Mind, and Its Several Faculties (1758)
“Justice is a virtue, but not one that makes people lovable.”
Justice (1993)
“The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.”
“Hypocrisy is the homage that vice and wrong pay to virtue and justice.”
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. III : The Master, p. 73
“The truly enlightened man has no learning, no virtue, no accomplishments, no fame.”
38
Essays in Idleness (1967 Columbia University Press, Trns: Donald Keene)
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.”
Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter I, Section 1, pg. 3-4
Context: Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.
I Think I'll Sit This One Out (1939)
Context: Justice alone knows liberty, equality, and fraternity, and justice is a human virtue arising from man's human capacity to reason. We cannot make sense out of justice by looking at the moon or taking dope or building battleships. We can make sense out of justice by using our reason to discover that justice, like wisdom, is better than rubies.