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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.

Random quote on Justice

Most quoted on justice:

Let the nation try justice and the problem will be solved.

Frederick Douglass Lessons of the Hour (1894)

Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow;
Some kick'd until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.

Samuel Butler Part II (1664)

And thus methinks should men of judgment frame
Their means of traffic from the vulgar trade,
And, as their wealth increaseth, so inclose
Infinite riches in a little room.

Christopher Marlowe The Jew of Malta (1589)

The power to kill is less than the power to create, for it produces an ending rather than the beginning of something new.

Audre Lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

The gladsome light of jurisprudence.

Edward Coke Institutes of the Laws of England (1628)

Murder begins where self-defense ends.

Georg Büchner Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)

A sense of justice is a noble fancy.

Esaias Tegnér Fridthjof's Saga (1820)

Common sense still lingers in Westminster Hall.

William Henry Maule Crosse v. Seaman (1851)

It is far more important the law should be administered with absolute integrity, than that in this case or in that the law should be a good law or a bad one.

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge Reg. v. Ramsey (1883)

Certainly the opinion of all the Judges of later times, must have more weight than the extra-judicial opinion of a single Judge at any former time.

John Pratt Layer's Case (1722)

Every man must be taken to be cognizant of the law, otherwise there is no saying to what extent the excuse of ignorance may not be Law carried. It would be urged in almost every case.

Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough Bilbie v. Lumley (1802)

The subject being unusual, I fear that I shall not make myself intelligible, but I will do my endeavour, that the reasons of our judgment may be apprehended.

John Holt B. v. Knight and Burton (1699)

Personally, I detest any attempt to bring the law into maxims. Maxims are invariably wrong, that is, they are so general and large that they always include something which is not intended to be included.

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher Yarmouth v. France (1887)

Whatever doubts I had, I submit to the authority of the other Judges.

Giles Rooke Mitchell v. Cockburne (1794)

Nothing stops a bullet like a job.

Greg Boyle

There is nothing more dangerous than to pass judgment on the basis of fragmentary proof.

Uchiyama Gudō Common Consciousness (1911)

So comes a reck'ning when the banquet's o'er,
The dreadful reck'ning, and men smile no more.

John Gay

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.

William Shakespeare

If we give an opinion, we can't give a judgment: you can't come here for an opinion to us.

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

William Shakespeare

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