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.
Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.
Tremble, thou wretch,
That has within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipp'd of justice.
This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips.
A just man is not one who does no ill,
But he, who with the power, has not the will.
The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state,
Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate.