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Quotes About Justice

In the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
~ John Steinbeck
when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need.
~ John Steinbeck
The new migrants from the dust bowl are here to stay. They are the vest American stock, intelligent, resourceful; and, if given a chance, socially responsible. To attempt to force them into a peonage of starvation and intimidated despair will be unsuccessful. They can be citizens of the highest type, or they can be an army driven by suffering to take what they need. On their future treatment will depend the course they will be force to take.
~ John Steinbeck
Thou wilt die soon and thou are not yet simple nor free from perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things, nor kindly disposed towards all; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in acting justly.
~ John Steinbeck
I don't aim to starve to death before I kill the man that's starving me.
~ John Steinbeck
Law changes, he said, but 'got to's' go on. You got the right to do what you got to do.
~ John Steinbeck
The law was designed to save, not to destroy
~ John Steinbeck
and God accepted Abel and rejected Cain. I never thought that was a just thing. I never understood it. Do you?" "Maybe we think out of a different background," said Lee. "I remember that this story was written by and for a shepherd people. They were not farmers. Wouldn't the god of shepherds find a fat lamb more valuable than a sheaf of barley? A sacrifice must be the best and most.
~ John Steinbeck
Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live- for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live- for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know- fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept...
~ John Steinbeck
He wasn' doing nothin' against the law, Ma. I been thinkin' a hell of a lot, thinkin' about our people livin' like pigs, an' the good rich lan' layin' fallow, or maybe one fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan' good farmers is starvin'. An' I been wonderin' if all our folks got together an' yelled, like them fellas yelled, only a few of 'em at the Hooper ranch—
~ John Steinbeck
The guy's name was Joy. He was a radical! Get it? A radical. He wanted guys like you to have enough to eat and a place to sleep where you wouldn't get wet. He didn't want nothing for himself. He was a radical!
~ John Steinbeck
Then it don' matter. Then I'll be all aroun' in the dark. I'll be ever'where--wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'-- I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build--why, I'll be there. See?
~ John Steinbeck
La nostra gente è brava gente; la nostra gente è gente buona. Preghiamo il Signore che un giorno la gente buona non sarà più povera. Preghiamo il Signore che un giorno i bambini avranno tutti da mangiare. E le associazioni dei proprietari sapevano che un giorno quegli uomini avrebbero smesso di pregare. E sarebbe stata la fine.
~ John Steinbeck
If a fella owns a team a horses, he don't raise no hell if he got to feed 'em when they ain't workin'. But if a fella got men workin' for him, he jus' don't give a damn. Horses is a hell of a lot more worth than men. I don' understan' it.
~ John Steinbeck
To a criminal, honesty is foolish.
~ John Steinbeck
I lived out at Sunlan' Lan' an' Cattle Company's place. Honest to God, they got a cop for ever' ten people. Got one water faucet for 'bout two hundred people.
~ John Steinbeck
Only when everything else failed did a good sheriff make an arrest. The best sheriff was not the best fighter but the best diplomat.
~ John Steinbeck
You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.
~ John Steinbeck
The only condition of submission is to submit!… One nation, under one Government, without slavery, has been ordained, and shall stand." Some
~ Unknown
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
~ John Stuart Mill
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
~ John Stuart Mill
I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go .
~ John Stuart Mill
Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.
~ John Updike
All these prohibitions old people think up. I think people should be free to do what they want unless it's hurting someone else.
~ John Updike