Justice Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old justice quotes, justice sayings, and justice proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Frederick Douglass
In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. Albert Einstein
The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Lois McMaster Bujold
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Weasel
Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create. Pope John Paul II
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. Benjamin Franklin
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected--those, precisely, who need the law's protection most!--and listens to their testimony. James Baldwin
Men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice. Robert Jordan
Justice? -- You get justice in the next world. In this one you have the law. William Gaddis
Courage is of no value unless accompanied by justice; yet if all men became just, there would be no need for courage. Agesilaus the Second
Justice requires that to lawfully constituted Authority there be given that respect and obedience which is its due; that the laws which are made shall be in wise conformity with the common good; and that, as a matter of conscience all men shall render obedience to these laws. Pope Pius XI
Laws catch flies but let hornets go free. Scottish (on justice)
Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due. Domitus Ulpian
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. Theodore Roosevelt
Little thieves are hanged but great ones escape. 14th Century French Proverb
Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building, it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists...it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status. Lewis Powell, Jr.
If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us. Francis Bacon
The failure to invest in civil justice is directly related to the increase in criminal disorder. The more people feel there is injustice the more it becomes part of their psyche. Wilhelm Joseph
Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. Haile Selassie
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned. Anatole France
This thing that men call justice, this blind snake that strikes men down in the dark, mindless with fury, keep your hand back from it, pass by in silence. Maxwell Anderson
The just man is not the product of a day, but of a long brooding and a painful birth. To become a power for peace, a man must first pass through experiences which lead him to see things in their different aspects: it is necessary that he have a wide horizon, and breathe various atmospheres--in a word, from crossing, one after another, paths and points of view the most diverse, and sometimes the most contradictory, he must acquire the faculty of putting himself in the place of others and appreciating them. Charles Wagner
The need for justice grows out of the conflict of human interests. That is to say, if there were no conflict of interests among mankind we should never have invented the word justice, nor conceived the idea for which it stands. Thomas Nixon Carver
Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes. Daniel Defoe
Justice is the tolerable accommodation of the conflicting interests of society, and I don't believe there is any royal road to attain such accommodation concretely. Judge Learned Hand
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong. Winston Churchill
Injustice is relatively easy to bear; it is justice that hurts. H.L. Mencken
Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate. Robert G. Ingersoll
Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens Plato
Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice. Harrison Ford
Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice. Lyn Yutang
The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government George Washington
Law in origin was merely a codification of the power of dominant groups, and did not aim at anything that to a modern man would appear to be justice Bertrand Russell
The best safeguard against fascism is to establish social justice to the maximum extent possible. Arnold Toynbee
Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom Clarence Darrow
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls. Lenny Bruce
You know, the courts may not be working any more, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done. Marge Simpson
Justice is incidental to law and order. John Edgar Hoover
A sense of justice is a noble fancy. Esaias Tegnér
The foundation of justice is good faith. Cicero
The love of justice is, in most men, nothing more than the fear of suffering injustice Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Extreme justice is often injustice. Jean Racine
The deceitful have no friends. Hindi (Asian Indian) (on justice)
Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed. Epicurus
A rule isn't unfair if it applies to everyone. unknown
The end doesn't justify the means. Ovid
Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. J.R.R. Tolkien
Ladies who play with fire must remember that smoke gets in their eyes. Mae West
Truth never damages a cause that is just. Mahatma Gandhi
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. Voltaire
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Theodore Parker
For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public. Cornel West
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice Abraham Lincoln
Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. Bryan Stevenson
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy. Wendell Berry
Halls of justice painted green / Money talking / Power wolves beset your door / Hear them stalking Kirk Hammett
Brothers are we, marching on the roads of time / From this broken land and the days that defined us / All men are free, justice is a sword we hold / Trusting in the knights noble vow In the brotherhood that binds us. Jones
We lay our case before you / Let your hammer fall / Tip the scales of justice / Liberty for all. Petery Rooney Byford
A city of justice, a city of love, a city of peace / For everyone of us / We all need it, can't live without it. Robert S. Kelly
Wheels of Justice turning / Bring me home to you / If justice has true meaning / I'll spend my days with you. James Reeder
No way out gotta stand strong / Can't you see that I'm not wrong / That's the way it is and can't you see / Street justice for you and me. Harley Flanagan
So must we rev'rence God, as first to knows / Justice from Him, not from ourselves, doth flow / God those accepts who to mankind are friends / Whose justice far as their own power extends. John Denham
Truth Justice loves, and truth injustice fears, / Truth above all things a just man reveres. John Denham
When justice on offenders is not done, / Law, government, and commerce, are o'erthrown. John Denham
Justice with weight and measure must proceed / Yet when pronouncing sentence, seem not glad / Such spectacles, though they are just, are sad. John Denham
Justice, when equal scales she holds, is blind / Nor cruelty, nor mercy, change her mind. John Denham
WHAT do the scales of Justice hold / Poised even in that steady hand? / What is that measure closely scanned? / Is one side weighted down with gold? / Or is she clamorous for her right? Surely for that she bides too still! Bessie Rayner Parkes
With level brows this Justice stands / And weighs her duties one by one / And if she pleads, or if commands / It is lest these be left undone. Bessie Rayner Parkes
Or slurred through weakness and constraint / This noble Justice was not bred / In hearts defiled with any taint / Of selfish seeking, dark and dead. Bessie Rayner Parkes
It is my strong belief / God's justice will heal The wounds and griefs / I have suffered from that Years and years. Ehsan Sehgal
Before we lose the word / That bids new worlds to birth, / Needs must we loosen first the sword Of Justice upon earth / Or else all else is vain / Since life on earth began / And the spent world sinks back again / Hopeless of God and Man. Rudyard Kipling
TWO lawyers to their cause so well adhered / A country justice quite confused appeared / By them the facts were rendered so obscure / With which the truth remained he was not sure. La Fontaine
When you've been denied justice... you are incomplete. It feels that God has abandoned you in a stark place. I asked God... I think we all did... what we should do, and he said do what is right. And I thought if I did, it would make me complete again. Agatha Christie
Justice delayed is justice denied. Edward Allen Bernero
The conviction that justice involves virtue as well as choice runs deep. Thinking about justice seems inescapably to engage us in thinking about the best way to live. Michael J. Sandel
Modern theories of justice try to separate questions of fairness and rights from arguments about honor, virtue, and moral desert. Michael J. Sandel
They seek principles of justice that are neural among ends, and enable people to choose and pursue their ends for themselves. Michael J. Sandel
Justice discriminates according to merit, according to the relevant excellence. Michael J. Sandel
Justice is primarily a possible, but not a necessary, quality of a social order regulating the mutual relations of men. Hans Kelsen
The longing for justice is men's eternal longing for happiness. It is happiness that man cannot find alone, as an isolated individual, and hence seeks in sociaty. Hans Kelsen
Justice is social happiness. It is happiness guaranteed by a social order. Hans Kelsen
The desire for justice is so elementary, and so deeply rooted in the human mind, because it is a manifestation of man's indestructible desire for his own subjective happiness. Hans Kelsen
The idea of justice is transformed from a principle guaranteeing the individual happiness of all subjects, into a social order protecting certain interests socially. Hans Kelsen
Every system of values, especially a system of morals and its central idea of justice, is a social phenomenon, the product of a society, and hence different according to the nature of the society within which it arises. Hans Kelsen