Quotes About Justice

Neely grumbled. 'They [Indians] are a murdering lot of savages, and no mention of them in the Bible.' 'What has that to do with it?' John Sampson asked. 'If there's no mention of them,' Neely said, 'they are animals, not men.' 'I don't recall any mention of the English, either,' I said mildly. He gave me a mean look, then changed the subject.

Aye, but a hand properly used can be as dangerous as a knife . . . And a man is not lynched for what he does with his hands.

The cause of right is never lost, Leal. I've often thought the biggest damned fool in the world could to down in history as a great man if he would just consistently vote for the greatest good of the greatest number - Kilkenny

When evil takes up to violence, the good have no choice but to defend themselves.

as they were, and skillful with weapons, they went about where they liked and did as they pleased, approaching the inevitable time when they would cross the wrong man

You killed Rice Wheeler, he said, the Panhandle gunman. He should have stayed in the Panhandle, I said.

You killed Rice Wheeler, he said, the Panhandle gunman. He should have stayed in the Panhandle, I said.

There is no greater role for a man to play than to assist in the government of a people, nor anyone lower than he who misuses that power.

Laws are made to free people, not to bind them

Don't go for that gun," I said quietly. "I want you tried in a court of law, not dead on this floor.

No matter what happened here, what I was going to do was important. Maybe not for this town, but for men everywhere, for there must be right. Strength never made right, and it is an indecency when it is allowed to breed corruption.

Bell. His next punch was a clean miss, but if Bell missed any at all they had been invisible punches, for Bell had promptly given him such a beating that it was three days before he could ride out of town. No man in a lifetime takes two such beatings. No man could take them. When Jud Devitt approached

Or do you realize that when any freedom is destroyed for others, it is destroyed for you, too?

Society is not taking revenge. It is simply eliminating someone who refuses to live by the rules.

They were men shaped and tempered to the harsh ways of a harsh land, strong in their sense of justice, ruthless in their demand for punishment, relentless in pursuit. From the desert they had carved their homes, and from the desert they drew their courage and their code, and the desert knows no mercy.

There could be no tolerating of evil. One stamped it out or the evil grew worse.

The only law we have here is the law of strength. The only justice we have must live in the hearts and minds of men. The land is hard, and so the men are hard. We make mistakes, of course, but when there is a case of murder, we try to handle the murderer so he will not kill again.

Where there's no law, all the strength can't be left in the hands of the lawless, so good men use guns, too.

followed my sister Lorna to the creek when she went for water. When I came upon them he had grabbed my sister by the arm, and I straightaway knocked him down.

No. Until man can order his own affairs, until he ceases to prey on his brothers, he will need someone to maintain order. A lawman is not a restraint, but a freedom, a liberation. He restrains only those who would break the laws and provides freedom for the rest of us to work, to laugh, to sing, to play in peace.

He defended them because he believed that every social interest should have its chance.

These are the facts: The Walker boat smashed into Sam's boat. Sam was shot and killed in the water. Katherine Barlow was rescued against her wishes. When they returned to the shore, she saw Mary Lou's body lying on the ground. The donkey had been shot in the head. That all happened one hundred and ten years ago. Since then, not one drop of rain has fallen on Green Lake. You make the decision: Whom did God punish?

If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole

The left side of Mr. Sir's face had swollen to the size of half a cantaloupe. There were three dark-purple jagged lines running down his cheek where the Warden had scratched him.