Quotes About Justice

Crime must be brought under control... Freedom without civility, freedom without the ability to live in peace, was not true freedom at all.

To be free is to not merely cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

It was not lack of ability that limited my people, but lack of opportunity.

The purpose of freedom is to create it for others. Prison desk calendar, written on Robben Island, June 2, 1979

We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom. We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all.

To deny people of their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

We do not want freedom without bread, nor do we want bread without freedom. Investiture, Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, July 10, 1993

the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

As Chief Luthuli said, 'When the women begin to take an active part in the struggle, no power on earth can stop us from achieving freedom in our lifetime.

No matter what I suffered in my pursuit of freedom, I always took strength from the fact that I was fighting with and for my own people. Bram was a free man who fought against his own people to ensure the freedom of others

Men, I think, are not capable of doing nothing, of saying nothing, of not reacting to injustice, of not protesting against oppression, of not striving for the good of society and the good life in the ways they see it.

When the women begin to take an active part in the struggle, no power on earth can stop us from achieving freedom in our lifetime.

grievance into a succinct and pithy phrase, while mobilizing the people to combat it. Our slogan

I was the symbol of justice in the court of the oppressor, the representative of the great ideals of freedom,

To overthrow oppression has been sanctioned by humanity and is the highest aspiration

A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor. At a certain point, one can only fight fire with fire.

an immoral and unjust legal system would breed contempt for its laws and regulations.

In South Africa, to be poor and black was normal, to be poor and white was a tragedy.

Se dice que nadie conoce realmente un país hasta haber pasado por sus cárceles. No se debe juzgar a una nación por cómo trata a sus miembros más encumbrados, sino por cómo trata a los más humildes.

The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

Freedom can never be taken for granted. Each generation must safeguard it and extend it. Your parents and elders sacrificed much so that you should have freedom without suffering what they did. Use this precious right to ensure that the darkness of the past never return.

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones – and South Africa treated its imprisoned African citizens like animals.