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.
The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind.
The law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.
That is the bitterest of all, — to wear the yoke of our own wrong-doing.
Nor is there any law more just, than that he who has plotted death shall perish by his own plot.
There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
The judge's duty is to inquire about the time, as well as the facts.
When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened.
We sometimes see a fool possessed of talent, but never of judgment.
No man e'er felt the halter draw,
With good opinion of the law.