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.
There is nothynge that more dyspleaseth God,
Than from theyr children to spare the rod.
All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.
Every law the people has not ratified in person is null and void - is, in fact, not a law.
The sole means of ridding man of crime is to rid him of freedom.
For I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.
Justice is a constant and perpetual will to render to everyone that which is his own.
A man must not go to law because the musician keeps false time with his foot.