Quotes about Justice

Many feel that in today's climate some of those in authority are exercising, in effect, a self-serving, 'ends justify the means' mindset as well, and that, in turn, empowers them to do the same.

It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.

The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and of the oppressed. The human race is not in a position to dispense with it.

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice will not sleep forever.

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. . . . [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government. (A plaque with this quotation, with the first phrase omitted, is in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.)