Quotes About Justice

There is no reason to accept the doctrines crafted to sustain power and privilege, or to believe that we are constrained by mysterious and unknown social laws. These are simply decisions made within institutions that are subject to human will and that must face the test of legitimacy. And if they do not meet the test, they can be replaced by other institutions that are more free and more just, as has happened often in the past.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Everyone's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's really an easy way: Stop participating in it.

The Boston Catholic Diary did not deny that slavery was unjust, but it declared "infinitely more reprehensible" the "zealots who would madly attempt to eradicate the evil by the destruction of our federal union." The "illustrious Liberator" could afix his signature to any document he pleased, but he had "no right to shackle the opinions of the Irishmen of America. . . . We can tell the abolitionists that we acknowledge no dictation from a foreign source. . . .

I don't kick a man when he's down, unless I'm the one who put him down in the first place. I don't put him down unless he deserves it. And I don't break my word if I give it. So I'll give you my word.

In New York City, twenty-three African-American cops have been shot and eighteen others assaulted by white officers in cases of "mistaken identity." Not one white cop has ever been shot by a black cop. The PBA, while bemoaning these "tragic incidents," has done nothing to help remedy the problem.

Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.

Therefore I feel that the aforementioned guiding principle must be modified to read: If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the fields to produce more bread otherwise there will be no peace.

Almost certainly, however, the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind.

Without food, man can live at most but a few weeks without it, all other components of social justice are meaningless.

War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice.

War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can also invent peace with justice.

The law does not content itself with classifying and punishing crime. It invents crime.

Goldstone has done terrible damage to the cause of truth and justice and the rule of law. He has poisoned Jewish-Palestinian relations, undermined the courageous work of Israeli dissenters and—most unforgivably—increased the risk of another merciless IDF assault.

For the "new democracies" in Eastern Europe, meeting this standard "would be commensurate with their passage from totalitarianism to democratic states." Eizenstat is a senior US government official and a prominent supporter of Israel. Yet, judging by the respective claims of Native Americans and Palestinians, neither the US nor Israel has yet made the transition.85

Protection," John Stuart Mill wrote, "against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling.

a perfectly just God must punish bad deeds regardless of how many good ones someone has performed.

the Moral Law is not always the standard by which we treat others, but it is nearly always the standard by which we expect others to treat us.

What seems to have been at work is the axiom, rarely made articulate, but deeply held by many people, that affronted nature will always avenge itself on guilty humanity.

You don't know a woman until you've met her in court.

Churchill replied: "To fire willfully[23] on women and children is a disgraceful act, and I am surprised you do not order the officers responsible to be tried by court

and they starts biddin' on me. And when they cried off and this Mr. Crosby come up to get me, I just pulled out my papers and helt 'em up high and when he sees 'em he say, "Let me see them." But I says, "You just look at it up here." He squints up and say, "This gal am free and has papers." And tells me he a legislature man and takes me and lets me stay with his slaves. He is a good man.

People do not win people fights. Lawyers do.

I will confess to you that, you know, one of the statements that's been attributed to me that I'm sort of proud of is somebody said, you know, "What do we do about Osama bin Laden?" And they asked me, "Can we forgive him?" And I said, "Forgiveness is up to God. I just hope we hurry up the meeting." And that's the way I feel about him, really. [8 February 2003 show of Meet The Press, NBC News]