Quotes About Justice

Capital punishment — the income tax.

But, sir, we are told that this is an odious and unpopular tax. I never knew a tax that was not odious and unpopular with the people who paid it... Sir, if you would levy only taxes which in the opinion of everybody, or even of a majority, are not unequal and unjust, you would have such a tax law as I have never yet seen.

A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right.

Words that provoked the gods once from him fell. No beasts so fierce, said he, but I can quell; When lo! the earth a baleful Scorpion sent, To kill Latona was the dire intent. Orion saved her, though himself was slain, But did for that a spacious place obtain In heaven. To thee my life, said she, was dear, And for thy merit shine illustrious there.

We the people will not be silenced. We the people will not be bullied. We the people will not surrender.

America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.

Time is the only thief we can't get justice against.

The right to vote has and always will remain the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society. We must, each and every one of us, continue to protect this sacred right and ensure everyone is afforded the opportunity to vote.

[W]e need to build our democracy and our voting system on a rock, the rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that applies to all states and all citizens.

How about laws that make it harder to shoot people and easier to vote?

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.

We kind o' thought Christ went agin war and pillage...

Es fer war, I call it murder,— There you hev it, plain an' flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that; God hez sed so, plump an' fairly, It's ez long ez it is broad, An' you've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God.

I am fixed in awe at the mighty conflict to which two great nations are advancing, and recoil with horror at the ferociousness of man. Will nations never devise a more rational umpire of differences than force? Are there no means of coercing injustice more gratifying to our nature than a waste of the blood of thousands, & of the labor of millions of our fellow-creatures?

My dear friend and colleague Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American hero. She spent her life fighting for the equality of all people, and she was a pathbreaking champion of women's rights. She served our Court and country with consummate dedication, tirelessness, and passion for justice. She has left a legacy few could rival.

Internet meme

Justices continue to think and can change. I am ever hopeful that if the court has a blind spot today, its eyes will be open tomorrow.

"Women's rights will not go back to the Dark Side!" —Ruth Vader Ginsburg

It was exhilarating to help bring down the barriers that, in Justice Brennan's words, put women less "on a pedestal" than "in a cage." So much has changed for the better since then. True, we have not reached Nirvana, but the progress I have seen in my lifetime makes me optimistic for the future. Our communities, nation, and world will be increasingly improved as women achieve their rightful place in all fields of human endeavor.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent a lifetime flourishing in the face of adversity before being appointed a Supreme Court justice, where she successfully fought against gender discrimination and unified the liberal block of the court.

Notorious RBG: You can't handle the Ruth.

The flyest justice SCOTUS has ever seen.

My country 't is of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrim's pride, From every mountain side Let freedom ring...

Earlier today we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, "We, the people." It is a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the 17th of September in 1787 I was not included in that "We, the people." I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision I have finally been included in "We, the people."