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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:

We must not allow violence among brothers, and we must seek justice through the institutions that apply the law. The solution will never come with violence.

David Albin Zywiec Sidor

It’s clear that there is no peace without justice. There is no peace without truth.

Rigoberta Menchú Interview with Democracy Now (2013)

The gods
Grow angry with your patience. 'Tis their care,
And must be yours, that guilty men escape not:
As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.

Ben Jonson

Blessed are they who, setting aside their own pleasure and inclination, consider things according to reason and justice before doing them.

John of the Cross

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers (1787)

But since he had
The genius to be loved, why let him have
The justice to be honoured in his grave.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Poems (1844)

Squeeze human nature into a straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear!

Karl Kraus Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

In the Halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls.

Lenny Bruce

Our enemy is power mistaken for justice. Our enemy is the desperation that justifies atrocity. The Jedi's true enemy is the jungle.

Matthew Stover Shatterpoint (2004)

Freedom and justice are complementary concepts; freedom is no more feasible without justice than justice is possible without freedom.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Pope Francis never stopped championing peace, compassion, and justice. A true ally in the fight for Julian Assange’s freedom. May he rest in peace.

Julian Assange

It is a maxim in our law that a plaintiff must shew that he stands on a fair ground when he calls on a Court of justice to administer relief to him.

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon Booth v. Hodgson (1795)

Justice is a virtue, but not one that makes people lovable.

Alan Ryan Justice (1993)

“Feminism for me is about justice; it’s about the idea that all human beings are equal… Feminism just means equality of opportunity.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Notes on Grief (2021)

Justice is a constant uprightness in words and in deeds.

Alexander Hume

Membership of a terrorist group is a serious crime, as is encouraging or supporting terrorism, but Shamima Begum should face justice for those crimes in the UK.

Ed Davey

A lot of songs will do justice to how a lot of people are feeling, and it is good for the time regardless of the situation.

Sound Sultan

I love the justice part of being a judge. Every case affected real people. When I became chief justice, I liked the opportunity for real change.

Kathleen A. Blatz

“I don't know that I can jump from one fire into the other and really do it justice."

Christina Norman

Bosch is great because what he imagines in color can be translated into justice.

Edward Dahlberg

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