The word justice comes from the Latin word “jus”, which means right or law. Justice is often used interchangeably with the word “fairness.” Many philosophers, sociologists, theologians, and other scientists define justice as the proper ordering of people and things. All races and religions include a definition of justice in their codes of law and conduct. Justice is, in fact, the glue that holds societies together. Justice includes the notion of upholding the law, as in the work of police, judges and the court.
Behind the concept of justice lies the notion of balance – that people get what is right, fair and appropriate. We all feel we deserve equal and impartial treatment but perhaps our concept of justice is nothing more than a way to legitimize our desire for revenge. Perhaps we attach to justice the connotations of “right” and “good” simply to make ourselves feel better about our need to balance the scales. Be that as it may, in the following article there is a collection of short, funny, cynical, intellectual, inspiring and poetic quotes.
Table of Contents
- Short Quotes about Justice
- Social Injustice Quotes
- Martin Luther King Quotes about Justice
- Funny Quotes about Justice
- Cynical Quotes about Justice
- Intellectual Quotes about Justice
- Inspiring Justice Quotes
- Poetic Quotes about Justice
- Bible and Religious Justice Quotes
- Justice Quotes On Images
Short Quotes about Justice
Justice is truth in action. Benjamin Disraeli
People who don’t expect justice don’t have to suffer disappointment. Isaac Asimov
The course of justice often prevents it. Edward Counsel
Never pray for justice, because you might get some. Margaret Atwood
Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public. Cornel West
The golden eye of justice sees, and requites the unjust man. Sophocles
The foundation of justice is good faith. Cicero
I think the first duty of society is justice. Alexander Hamilton
If we had more justice there would be less need of charity. Henry Ford
It’s every man’s business to see justice done. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due. Domitus Ulpian
Delay of justice is injustice. Walter Savage Landor
Justice is never so slender to us as when we first practice it. Henry Ward Beecher
Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep. Isaiah Berlin
Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent. Terry Goodkind
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Theodore Parker
There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice. Joseph Addison
Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice. Desmond Tutu
Truth never damages a cause that is just. Mahatma Gandhi
Law is not law, if it violates the principles of eternal justice. Lydia Maria Child
True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice. Jane Addams
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned. Anatole France
Extreme justice is often injustice. Jean Racine
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. Edmund Burke
Justice and the facade of a temple are seen best from the outside. Austin O’Malley
Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Justice is a fading light. Sheryl Crow
The greatest trespasser on justice still wishes it done to him. Edward Counsel
Fairness is what justice really is. Potter Stewart
What’s fair ain’t necessarily right. Toni Morrison, Beloved
Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust. George Washington
Social Injustice Quotes
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King Jr.
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government. Malcolm X
The only way to deal with injustice is to shine a light on it. Charles Bukowski
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. Thomas Jefferson
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Ella Baker
The opposite of poverty is not wealth; it is justice. Bryan Stevenson
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. Montesquieu
Until we are all free, we are none of us free. Emma Lazarus
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. Benjamin Franklin
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Elie Wiesel
Martin Luther King Quotes about Justice
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A unjust law, is no law at all. Martin Luther King, Jr.
True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King Jr.
It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people. Martin Luther King Jr.
I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you. Martin Luther King Jr.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. Martin Luther King Jr.
We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.
Funny Quotes about Justice
Revenge? Nah, I’m too lazy. I’m gonna sit here and let karma fuck you up. Unknown
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. Robert Frost
Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers. Erik Pepke
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst Aristotle
Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master. Jesse Jackson
Corn can’t expect justice from a court composed of chickens. African Proverb
Good lawyers know the law; great lawyers know the judge. Unknown
Many remark justice is blind; pity those in her sway, shocked to discover she is also deaf. David Mamet
You know, the courts may not be working anymore, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done. Marge Simpson
Cynical Quotes about Justice
If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us. Francis Bacon
There is no such thing as justice, all the best that we can hope for is revenge. Emilie Autumn
The love of justice is, in most men, nothing more than the fear of suffering injustice. Francois de la Rochefoucauld
My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? C.S. Lewis
Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice. Lyn Yutang
A rule that cannot be bent will certainly be broken. Robert Brault
Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game. Bob Dylan
Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one’s ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone – the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there’s no fairness on earth. Svetlana Alexievich
Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes. Daniel Defoe
For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy. G.K. Chesterton
Men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice. Robert Jordan
The love of justice is, in most men, nothing more than the fear of suffering injustice. Francois, Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Justice is a whore that won’t let herself be stiffed, and collects the wages of shame even from the poor. Karl Kraus
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. Frederick Douglass
I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. Albert Camus
Intellectual Quotes about Justice
In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice.
Although the legal and ethical definitions of right are the antithesis of each other, most writers use them as synonyms. They confuse power with goodness, and mistake law for justice. Charles T. Sprading
Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. Haile Selassie
Justice has always evoked ideas of equality, of proportion of compensation. Equity signifies equality. Rules and regulations, right and righteousness are concerned with equality in value. If all men are equal, then all men are of the same essence, and the common essence entitles them of the same fundamental rights and equal liberty… In short justice is another name of liberty, equality and fraternity. B.R. Ambedkar
The need for justice grows out of the conflict of human interests. That is to say, if there were no conflict of interests among mankind we should never have invented the word justice, nor conceived the idea for which it stands. Thomas Nixon Carver
To know how to put what knowledge in which place is wisdom (hikmah). Otherwise, knowledge without order and seeking it without discipline does lead to confusion and hence to injustice to one’s self. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas
The need for justice grows out of the conflict of human interests. That is to say, if there were no conflict of interests among mankind we should never have invented the word justice, nor conceived the idea for which it stands. Thomas Nixon Carver
The just man is not the product of a day, but of a long brooding and a painful birth. To become a power for peace, a man must first pass through experiences which lead him to see things in their different aspects: it is necessary that he have a wide horizon, and breathe various atmospheres–in a word, from crossing, one after another, paths and points of view the most diverse, and sometimes the most contradictory, he must acquire the faculty of putting himself in the place of others and appreciating them. Charles Wagner
There is a certain attitude of mind that underlies the theory of justice and that ought to be strengthened by the experience of complex equality: we can think of it as a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. Not the opinions of this or that individual, which may well deserve a brusque response: I mean those deeper opinions that are the reflections in individual minds, shaped also by individual thought, of the social meanings that constitute our common life. For us, and for the foreseeable future, these opinions make for autonomous distributions; and every form of dominance is therefore an act of disrespect. To argue against dominance and its accompanying inequalities, it is only necessary to attend to the goods at stake and to the shared understanding of these goods. When philosophers do this, when they write out of respect for the understandings they share with their fellow citizens, they pursue justice justly, and they reinforce the common pursuit. Michael Walzer
The safety of the people requireth further from him or them that have the sovereign power, that justice be equally administered to all degrees of people, that is, that as well the rich and mighty as poor and obscure persons may be righted of the injuries done them, so as the great may have no greater hope of impunity when they do violence, dishonor, or any injury to the meaner sort than when one of these does the like to one of them. For in this consisteth equity, to which, as being a precept of the law of Nature, a sovereign is as much subject as any of the meanest of his people. Thomas Hobbes
Inspiring Justice Quotes
Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. Nelson Mandela
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Winston Churchill
If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. Ernesto Che Guevara
If we expect others to rely on our fairness and justice we must show that we rely on their fairness and justice. Calvin Coolidge
Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate. Robert G. Ingersoll
Justice and injustice indeed begins and ends with the self. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas
The American people have this to learn: that where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither person nor property is safe. Frederick Douglass
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. Abraham Lincoln
The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. […] a ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is. George R.R. Martin
If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you’re allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind. Shannon L. Alder
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Wiesel
Courage is of no value unless accompanied by justice; yet if all men became just, there would be no need for courage. Agesilaus the Second
Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed. Epicurus
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. Reinhold Niebuhr
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom. Aristotle
Jedi do not fight for peace. That’s only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace. We fight for justice because justice is the fundamental bedrock of civilization: an unjust civilization is built upon sand. It does not long survive a storm. Matthew Woodring Stover
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. James Madison
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Poetic Quotes about Justice
This thing that men call justice, this blind snake that strikes men down in the dark, mindless with fury, keep your hand back from it, pass by in silence. Maxwell Anderson
Justice is a knee in the gut from the floor on the chin at night sneaky with a knife brought up down on the magazine of a battleship sandbagged underhanded in the dark without a word of warning. Garroting. That’s what justice is. Joseph Heller
Oh, I am arm’d with more than complete steel, The justice of my quarrel. Aphra Behn
Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Some see an innocent victim. Others will see evil incarnate getting exactly what’s deserved. Emily Thorne
For Justice, though she’s painted blind, is to the weaker side inclin’d. Samuel Butler
Injustice alone can shake down the pillars of the skies, and restore the reign of Chaos and Night. Horace Mann
The most reasonable man always manages, when he pulls the trigger, to become a dispenser of justice. Jean Genet
If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected–those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most!–and listens to their testimony. James Baldwin
Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a foundation for general security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race. Daniel Webster
There’s no surer justice in the world than that which makes the rich thief hang the poor one. Peire Cardenal
Justice is justly represented blind, because she sees no difference in the parties concerned. She has but one scale and weight, for rich and poor, great and small. William Penn
Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes. Daniel Defoe
Bible and Religious Justice Quotes
The Lord is known by his justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Psalm 9:16
Justice is that which is practiced by God himself, and to be practiced in its perfection by none but him. Omniscience and omnipotence are requisite for the full exertion of it. Joseph Addison
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. Proverbs 29:7
It is highly convenient to believe in the infinite mercy of God when you feel the need of mercy, but remember also his infinite justice. B. R. Haydon
To have the power of forgetting, for the time, self, friends, interests, relationship; and to think of doing right toward another, a stranger, an enemy, perhaps, is to have that which men can share only with the angels, and with Him who is above men and angels. David Dudley Field
Justice Quotes On Images
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