Justice Quotes
By a wide margin the most quotes here are Shakespeare’s, and the two judges who follow him, Lord Mansfield and Lord Kenyon, are a sign that this page leans on the bench as much as the stage. Seneca and John Rawls fill out the top five.
Among the sourced entries, Bierce’s definition from 1911 describes justice as a commodity the State sells to citizens as a reward for their allegiance, taxes and personal service. Sartre’s Dirty Hands (1948) and Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) are here for what they say about guilt, not courts.
Three lines carry flags: Marlowe’s “the justice of my quarrel,” Augustine on charity and withheld justice, and a Martin Luther King Jr. line about peace and justice being goals for man.
Of what use are laws, inoperative through public immorality?
What the law insists upon, let it have of your own free will.
Do not pursue with the terrible scourge him who deserves a slight whip.
Let those who have deserved their punishment, bear it patiently.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness than that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
Disarmament without checks is but a shadow — and a community without law is but a shell.
Do not hurry over punishments and do not be pleased and do not be proud of your power to punish.