c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
He was right, and the pursuit of justice was also a game, where one man or woman employed by the Government, or sometimes twelve men and women, decided the fate of another. Whether or not that decision was just depended on your point of view. The winner usually thought it was a just result: The loser bore the consequences.
— Kenneth Eade, A Patriot's Act
One has no room for vengeance,' says Shara, 'when the eyes of the world are watching. We must be judicious, and bloodless.
— Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
We hear things like “we elected a black president,” as if that event was the magic eraser to wipe away all of the racial problems in our country in one fell swoop.But that would be like saying that in 1932, we elected a president with a physical disability, so we should stop building ramps and having reserved handicap spaces because that’s reverse discrimination against the able-bodied
— Simon S. Tam
We can not begin to administer justice without understanding the concept of truth and mercy.
— Paul Bamikole
Slavery remains rife, the shackles are just different. Labels and desires have replaced the cuffs and chains.
— Aisha Mirza
Are we Pakistanis, children of a lesser God? Is there one law for the west and one for us? Is our democracy supposed to be only democracy if you give us a no objection certificate?
— Imran Khan
If we know in what way society is unbalanced, we must do what we can to add weight to the lighter scale ... we must have formed a conception of equilibrium and be ever ready to change sides like justice, 'that fugitive from the camp of conquerors'.
— Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
Justice requires not only the ceasing and desisting of injustice but also requires either punishment or reparation for injuries and damages inflicted for prior wrongdoing. The essence of justice is the redistribution of gains earned through the perpetration of injustice. If restitution is not made and reparations not instituted to compensate for prior injustices, those injustices are in effect rewarded. And the benefits such rewards conferred on the perpetrators of injustice will continue to "draw interest," to be reinvested, and to be passed on to their children, who will use their inherited advantages to continue to exploit the children of the victims of the injustices of their ancestors. Consequently, injustice and inequality will be maintained across the generations as will their deleterious social, economic, and political outcomes.
— Amos Wilson
Justice has a right to protest against injustice.
— Kristian Goldmund Aumann
Human history is one prolonged and painful limping. We invariably step with one foot on the rock of justice, and with the other, we sink into the mire of deceit and self-delusion.
— Danail Hristov, The End of the Jesus Era
Maybe there is no justice, just different degrees of injustice.
— Marty Rubin
A righteous God isn't bound by time. He has an eternity to make things right.
— Shannon Dittemore, Angel Eyes
The only justice is to follow the sincere intuition of the soul, angry or gentle. Anger is just, and pity is just, but judgement is never just.
— D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature
[W]hen men have both done and suffered injustice and have had experience of both, not being able to avoid the one and obtain the other, they think that they had better agree among themselves to have neither; hence there arise laws and mutual covenants; and that which is ordained by law is termed by them lawful and just. This they affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;—it is a mean or compromise, between the best of all, which is to do injustice and not be punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer injustice without the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between the two, is tolerated not as a good, but as the lesser evil…
— Plato, The Republic
Cowards only find courage in the number of their likeness, citing their lofty strongholds as havens for their impunity.
— Justin K. McFarlane Beau
There's a sin, a fearful sin, resting on this nation, that will not go unpunished forever. There will be a reckoning yet. . . there's a day coming that will burn as an oven. It may be sooner or it may be later, but it's a coming as sure as the Lord is just.
— Solomon Northup
Justice is the cardinal virtue of peace.
— Kristian Goldmund Aumann
You can never let your compassion stand in the way of justice because when you do, other people get hurt.
— Donna Lynn Hope
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
— Anonymous
Choice of justice is better than injustice if even you got hold of the injustice it from any since that since is nonsense.
— M.Rishad Sakhi
The good part about having a mental disorder is having a valid reason for all the stupid things we do because of a damaged prefrontal cortex. However, the best part is seeing someone completely sane do the exact same things, without a valid excuse. This is the great equalizer of God and his little gift for all us crazy people to enjoy.
— Shannon L. Alder
The voice of the majority is no proof of justice
— Friedrich Schiller, Maria Stuart
Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution
—  justice without mercy is cruelty.
The white man will never be alone. Let him be just, and deal kindly with my people. For the dead are not powerless.
— Chief Seattle, The Chief Seattle's Speech
Sorrow and profound fatigue are at the heart of Dewey's silence. It had been his ambition to learn "exactly what happened in that house that night." Twice now he'd been told, and the two versions were very much alike, the only serious discrepancy being that Hickock attributed all four deaths to Smith, while Smith contended that Hickock had killed the two women. But the confessions, though they answered questions of how and why, failed to satisfy his sense of meaningful design. The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning. Except for one thing: they had experienced prolonged terror, they had suffered. And Dewey could not forget their sufferings. Nonetheless, he found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger - with, rather, a measure of sympathy - for Perry Smith's life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another. Dewey's sympathy, however, was not deep enough to accommodate either forgiveness or mercy. He hoped to see Perry and his partner hanged - hanged back to back.
— Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
No one is more vulnerable to fear than a man who keeps another in bondage. He will do anything to prevent justice from rearing its head — for he knows well what he deserves at the hands of those he subjugates.
— Jane Jensen, Sins of the Fathers
Then Mr. Underwood's meaning became clear: Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.
— Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
If you force me to pay a debt that is not mine, let me thank you in the afterlife
— Válgame, Zori 2ª Parte
One who abuses his power, unaware that one day will be the victim of his own abuses
— Válgame, Zori 2ª Parte
Lack of accountability weakens the environmental and health rights of citizens; it damages peace- building and reconciliation initiatives; impedes the implementation of global health policies; leads to the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity; and weakens democracy, justice, human rights, and international security.
— Widad Akreyi
God made big people. And God made little people. But Colt made the .45 to even things up.
— Don DeLillo, Libra
Yes," said Locke."Yes, Master Ibelius. I'm going to put that fucker in the dirt as deeply as any man who's ever been murdered, ever since the world began.
— Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora
Isn't this conception of absolute justice absolutely unjust?
— Thomas More, Utopia
Our confidence in the future restorative justice of God may even give us confidence to do justice ourselves in the present. We are called then, to stretch out the arms of our minds and hearts and to find ourselves Christ shaped, cross shaped, at the intersection of the past present and future of God’s time and our own time. This is a place of intense pain and intense joy, the sort that perhaps only music or poetry can express or embody.
— N.T. Wright, The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential
Take from a man his freedom or his goods and you may have taken his innocence, almost his humanity, as well.
— C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
Sometimes I doubt that anyone with a philosophical turn of mind is fit to judge anyone. He never comprehends the concept of guilt.
— Jack Henry Abbott, In the Belly of the Beast: Letters From Prison
Being Jewish did not compromise the humanitarian and universalist ideals of my close relatives who, having experienced persecution close hand, were more concerned with bringing about peace, justice and equality in the world than in trying to cut out a niche where they could continue an insular — Jewish — fantasy.
— Daniel Waterman, Entheogens, Society and Law: The Politics of Consciousness, Autonomy and Responsibility
Vezon, frankly, was disappointed. Sure, he had tried to steal the Mask of Life, and, yes, he had tried to kill the Toa Inika once, well, twice. And, okay, he had made an effort to trade their lives to the Zyglak in exchanged for his, but it's not like that had worked. And he had volunteered, well, been forced, well, actually been threatened with bodily harm if he didn't help, but he did aid in the rescue of Makuta Miserix. And what was his reward? A cold cell, an uncaring guard, and nothing nearby he could use to kill the Piraka. Was that justice?
— Greg Farshtey
we rescue our tears from the seasecure them by writ
— M. NourbeSe Philip, Zong!
Whether Maycomb knows it or not, we're paying the highest tribute we can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.''Who?' Aunt Alexandra never knew she was echoing her twelve-year-old nephew.'The handful of people in this town who that that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord's kindness am I.
— Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
But when justice is done the world drops away.
— Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red
Something is significantly wrong with the creature that sacrifices its children's lives in order to settle its differences.
— Suzanne Collins
Systems of retributive justice work well as long as they are proportional. However, in complex societies, where the State is the arbiter of justice, proportionality may break down: offences created by the elite few become offences against the entire community.
— Daniel Waterman, Entheogens, Society and Law: The Politics of Consciousness, Autonomy and Responsibility
Sometimes, the scales of justice find a level of their own, without our help... And sometimes, in seeking justice, we don't always serve it.
— Susanna Kearsley, The Splendour Falls
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
— Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, Solitude & Life Without Principle
But Hood was not yet done with her. He swung her up again, spun and once more hammered her onto the stone. 'I have had,' the Jaghut roared, and into the air she went again, and down once more, 'enough' - with a sob the crushed, broken body was yanked from the ground again - 'of- 'your- justice!
— Steven Erikson, The Crippled God
Tell them the Night Angel walks. Tell them Justice is come.
— Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge
I have a secret passion for mercy. But justice is what keeps happening to people.
— Ross Macdonald, The Goodbye Look
Any time a secret group usurps the collective will of the people, it’s wrong. Period.
— James Morcan, The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy
So long as tyranny exists, in whatever form, man's deepest aspiration must resist it as inevitably as man must breathe.
— Emma Goldman
Justice is not cheap in this country, and people who insist on it are usually either desperate or possessed by some private determination bordering on monomania.
— Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
Mercy is a contingency plan, devised by the guilty in the eventuality that they are caught. Justice is the domain of the just. - Richard Rahl
— Terry Goodkind
Fear has become normal and is covered by the idea of “patriotism”.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Pirates are evil!!? The Marines are righteous!!? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history...!!! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values!!! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground!!! Justice will prevail, you say!? But of course it will!!! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!!!
— Doflamigo
You are unjust to women in England. And till you count what is a a shame in a woman to be an infamy in a man, you will always be unjust, and Right, that pillar of fire, and Wrong, that pillar of cloud, will be made dim to your eyes, or be not seen at all, or if seen, not regarded.
— Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance
Can it be true that freedom only exists when it is a treasure, shared by all?
— Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom
A trial is two narratives competing for your attention.
— Harlan Coben, The Woods
But pity there was none. For all his old age, and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all.
— Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale
As things stand the "intellectuals" only come out to lick the bones left over by the tyrant.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Patriotism, currently, is nothing but the deadly evolution of narrow minded politics which has distorted language.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Judgment doesn’t always fall on the unjust in this life. Sometimes you have to make your own way out.
— Heather Day Gilbert, Miranda Warning
Social systems are neither a consumer product that we can buy or rent from the market nor a material that we can import from another country. It is not a creation of the almighty gifted from the heavens. A social system is a creation of mankind. That is a reflection of our responsibilities. In other words, the social system is the result of our behavior and the decisions we take in our way of life.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Crime and punishment can be summed up in two classifications: there are bad people and there are people who get into bad situations. The lines for liberation and rehabilitation should first begin with the people who get into bad situations.
— Johnnie Dent Jr.
I am for the largest liberty for the poor man -- for the oppressed.
— Lewis Tappan
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to change the mindset which has tended to create ad hoc solutions for the political madness and social farce. In fact, our age of tragedy which has been represented by the so-called “Marxists” in the Sinhalese community and “liberalists” in Tamil community since the 70s to the late 90s, has been replaced by the age of farce.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Be careful with your knives baby, use them before anyone can use them against you." Nan-The Otherside
— Ashley Jeffery, The Otherside
Sometimes painfully lost people can teach us lessons that we didn't think we needed to know, or be reminded of---the more history changes, the more it stays the same.
— Shannon L. Alder
Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the fires of justice. Let us be dissatisfied until they who live on the outskirts of Hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security. Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heap of history and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home. Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will betransformed into the bright tomorrows of quality integrated education.
— Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here:  Chaos or Community?
I don’t have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don’t think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice.
— Richard M. Stallman
There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.
— Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
Consider intentions carefully. Karma gives a damn about ego, awards allegiance to none, and its justice is truly blind.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Sometimes justice is better served by those who have experienced the pain
— Mark W. Boyer
I believe one of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice.
— Ziad K. Abdelnour, Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics
People and their values are almost infinitely diverse, and people will never agree on many elements of social arrangements that might be subjected to uniform rules of governance. Hence, the greater the scope of strictly individual self-determination, the lesser the scope of governance, and the greater the tolerance with which people live and let live among their fellows, the more peaceful and flourishing society will be
— Robert Higgs
It is a smokescreen if someone believes that they can make change without identifying the root causes which influence social disorder.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa, The Conflation: Politics and Politrics Beyond the Ecstasy
Curses are like chickens, they always come home to roost.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon
A philosophy untouched by the shadows on the wall can only yield a sterile utopia.
— Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
True, the US Government does not have moral authority to ask for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity that occurred in final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka. This is so not just because of what they have done in Sri Lanka, but what they do all around the world. Certainly, the US enhanced their assistance in many ways during last decades to fight against the Tamil Tiger rebels. But does the Government of Sri Lanka have moral authority to deny an international investigation? The answer is no.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
What unified the Balochis in their quest to regain self-determination, which resulted in the ‘existing state’? On the one hand, authoritarianism, militarization, and conquest has robbed them of their history and put them into the do or die situation. On the other hand, natural resources which would allow the citizens at large to achieve a respectable existence have been controlled by the military or political elites, well connected to feudal political elites in Pakistan.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
When man lost touch with his humanity he had no reason to walk along the higher path.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa, The Conflation: Politics and Politrics Beyond the Ecstasy
We have created our own fake world in order to satisfy our imagination through the illusion.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Mr. President, not only are you disastrous for the land, you are the man who must be held responsible for all the sins of the cowards, the cowards who were fooled into electing you as president.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa, The Naked Power
We lost our country somewhere along the way. We know where we lost it but we do not appear to have the strength to eliminate those blocking our view to enable us to develop our common identity.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Mr. President, it is time for you to give me back my country. You can either continue to make fools of the people who elected a tyrant like you or let the country rise phoenix-like from the ashes.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
The man on the top of the hierarchy has created social fear in order for us to accept him as the leader.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
The tyrant has power to play as long as he is the master in his surroundings.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa, The Conflation: Politics and Politrics Beyond the Ecstasy
The Rajapaksa regime in Sri Lanka, knows exactly how the political bluff works and uses it to spread lies among the people. What he has done to this country is assassinate the dignity and respect of good citizens while centralising everything into himself and his family members. His ego may lead him to think that it will last forever so to keep his dream alive he will not hesitate to eliminate the person who questions this.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
All it takes is common sense to understand that the Rajapaksa administration has vandalised every layer of the country’s resources to get rid of political obstacles while minimising the space available to facilitate the sharing of authentic political dissent. At the same time the opposition appears to be caged.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
That the military have the power to manipulate personal liberties while cocking a snook at justice and freedom in Balochistan is a fact.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
We as human beings need freedom, and justice, and a true cause to engage in to make life meaningful. This basic and comprehensive dream cannot be allowed to be shattered under any circumstances; if it starts shattering then the resistance will arise. The elimination of torture and other practiced cruelty needs to be effected for there to be freedom and justice. It will guide us in our search for a secure place to enjoy personal liberties.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
The decrease in the number of killings doesn’t make any difference if the society has to sleep with the ghosts of the old devil.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa, The Naked Power
The government of Pakistan is yet to understand that the insurgency is not the disease but the symptoms of the disease. If the government really needs to cure the crisis in the area, then it must engage in genuine treatment procedure rather than engage in ad hoc solutions that go under the motto: picked up, killed, and dumped. Kidnapping the target and dumping his or her bullet riddled and tortured corpse in a public place to scare the people in the area is a military strategy which aims to provide a lesson to those who still retain seeds of resistance. If this is the only solution that the government is capable of then it will have to commit genocide against the people of Balochistan so that it can continue to steal their natural resources and have total control of the province.
— Nilantha Ilangamuwa
...celebrating the Eucharist as a remembrance of Christ means practicing God's justice towards neighbors, strangers, and enemies alike.
— Patrick T. McCormick, A Banqueter's Guide To The All-Night Soup Kitchen Of The Kingdom Of God
And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.
— Albert Camus, Resistance, Rebellion and Death: Essays
One of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice.
— Julian Assange
We don't steal from the rich and give to the poor. We steal from the poor because they can't fight back --most of them-- and the rich take from us because they could wipe us out in a day.
— Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
While the word charity connotes a single act of giving, justice speaks to right living, of aligning oneself with the world in a way that sustains rather than exploits the rest of creation.
— Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
— Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait
But to whom can one appeal when one does not even know where to find the judge? How can one ever hope to prove one's innocence when there is no means of knowing of what one has been accused? No, there's no justice for people like us in the world: all that we can do is to suffer as bravely as possible and put our oppressors to shame.
— Anna Kavan, Asylum Piece
But to punish and not to restore, that is the greatest of all offences.
— Alan Paton, Too Late the Phalarope
The lack of stringent laws and the inefficient prosecution ofperpetrators have made it increasingly difficult for victims and theirfamilies to get the justice they deserve.
— Oche Otorkpa, The Unseen Terrorist
Justice is to social justice like a chair to an electric chair.
— Janusz Korwin-Mikke
If someone's deeds lower his position, his pedigree cannot elevate it.
— Ali ibn Abi Talib, Nahjul Balagha: Peak of Eloquence
The oligarchs do not care what justice is, only what seems just. They do not care what mercy is, only what appears merciful. Thus justice and mercy will always escape them.
— Catherynne M. Valente, In the Night Garden
The word 'religion' has acquired a very bad name among those who really love truth, justice, charity. It also exhales the musty odor of sanctimony and falsehood.
— Luther Burbank
The statue of Justice, symbol of the law, as she holds aloft her balance scale, is blindfolded. Justice is blind to race, creed, color – and to personal eccentricity. If there were a comparable state of Clio, the Muse of history, she would have to be presented with the blindfold lying at her feet, because the balance of her scales must be weighed with a conscious awareness of the facts and interpretations she must weigh.
— Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses
Roache's statement after his acquittal was dignified but his supporters were angry. They demanded to know why the case was ever brought, claiming that the actor was a victim of the "hysteria" created by revelations about Jimmy Savile. It's a curious conclusion to draw from a "not guilty" verdict; there are courtrooms where the conviction rate is 100 per cent but they tend to be in totalitarian states. In serious criminal cases in England and Wales, the rate is around 82 per cent, and I would be seriously worried if every defendant were to be found guilty.The Independent, 9 February 2014
— Joan Smith
It all suddenly seemed like a hopeless fight, but so what? I told myself. What does it cost you to pretend that the can change (for the better)? That history is an arc and it bends toward justice, even if it is long?
— Kelly J. Cogswell, Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger
Like other discriminatory legislation in our country's history, immigration laws define and differentiate legal status on the basis of arbitrary attributes. Immigration laws create unequal rights. People who break immigration laws don't cause harm or even potential harm (unlike, for example, drunk driving, which creates the potential for harm even if no accident occurs). Rather, people who break immigration laws do things that are perfectly legal for others, but denied to them--like crossing a border or, even more commonly, simply exist.
— Aviva Chomsky, They Take Our Jobs!: And 20 Other Myths about Immigration
Not one of the learned gentlemen who pretend that the Mosaic laws are filled with justice and intelligence, would live, for a moment, in any country where such laws were in force.
— Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses
If our goal is to slow migration, then the best way to do so is to work for a more equitable global system. But slowing migration is an odd goal, if the real problem is global inequality.
— Aviva Chomsky, They Take Our Jobs!: And 20 Other Myths about Immigration
We've heard many people say and have often said ourselves that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what isn't one's own ... Then, it turns out that this doing one's own work-provided that it comes to be in a certain way-is justice.
— Plato, The Republic
Kid Flash: Sorry. First time at the Hall. I'm a little overwhelmed.Robin: You're overwhelmed. Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn't anyone just whelmed?
— Young Justice
We try to show that the well-ordered society of justice as fairness is indeed possible according to our nature and those requirements. This endeavor belongs to political philosophy as reconciliation; for seeing that the conditions of a social world at least allow for that possibility affects our view of the world itself and our attitude toward it. No longer need it seem hopelessly hostile, a world in which the will to dominate and oppressive cruelties, abetted by prejudice and folly, must inevitably prevail. None of these may ease our loss, situated as we may be in a corrupt society. But we may reflect that the world is not in itself inhospitable to political justice and its good. Our social world might have been different and there is hope for those at another time and place
— John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement
war. Or, rather, wars. Not one, not two, but many wars, both big and small, just and unjust, wars with shifting casts of supposed heroes and villains, each new hero making one increasingly nostalgic for the old villain. The names changed, as did the faces, and I spit on them equally for all the petty feuds, the snipers, the land mines, bombing raids, the rockets, the looting and raping and killing.
— Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed
Justice without compassion is but tyranny
— Nicholas C. Rossis, Rise of the Prince
In this miasma of forgotten wars, torture and the war on terror, there are no easy answers, especially in the face of a very real terrorism. But I can live my questions. As a humanitarian, I can act from a feeling of shared vulnerability with the victims of preventable suffering. I have a responsibility to bear witness publicly to the plight of those I seek to assist and to insist on independent humanitarian action and respect for international humanitarian law. As a citizen, I can assume my responsibility for the public world - the world of politics - not as a spectator, but as a participant who engages and shapes it. The larger force that can push back against the wrong use of power can be the force of a citizen's politics that openly debates the right use of power and the reasoned pursuit of justice. Catherine Lu, a political philosopher and my friend, has described justice as a boundary over which we must not go, a bond of common humanity between us, a balance among people of equal worth and dignity. I fight not for a utopian ideal, but each day I make a choice, against nihilism and towards justice.
— James Orbinski, An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century
There should be a public outcry about what happened to me and other women in the name of our government! But history has shown “the customs of society and laws of the State allowed it to crush my aspirations and barred me from the the pursuit of almost every object worthy of an intelligent, rational mind.”45 What law has the right to entrust the interest of myself and my children into the hands of such an evil bunch of men? I did not occupy my rightful place in 1976.45. (paraphrased from Gurko, Miriram, The Ladies of Seneca Falls; the Birth of the Women's Rights Movement, 1974.
— Diane Chamberlain, Conduct Unbecoming: Rape, Torture, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Military Commanders
Plant your flag, respectfully stand for truth, justice, and freedom for all.
— L.M. Fields
I go where I want to go, I do what I want to do, and I am beholden to no one.
— Mark M. DeRobertis, Killer of Killers
I believe in justice, as long as I'm holding a knife at the throat of the judge.
— Matthew Woodring Stover, Heroes Die
Besides," said Suriyawong. "This was not a rescue operation.""What was it, target practice? Chinese skeet?""An offer of transportation to an invited guest of the Hegemon," said Suriyawong. "And the loan of a knife."Achilles held up the bloody thing, dangling it from the point. "Yours?" he asked."Unless you want to clean it," said Suriyawong.Achillese handed it to him. Suriyawong took out his cleaning kit and wiped down the blade, then began to polish it."You wanted me to die," said Achilles quietly."I expected you to solve your own problems," said Suriyawong.
— Orson Scott Card, Shadow Puppets
They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.
— Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
The ideas of justice of Europe and Africa are not the same and those of the one world are unbearable to the other. To the African there is but one way of counter-balancing the catastrophes of existence, it shall be done by replacement; he does not look for the motive of an action. Whether you lie in wait for your enemy and cut his throat in the dark; or you fell a tree, and a thoughtless stranger passes by and is killed; so far as punishment goes, to the Native mind, it is the same thing. A loss has been brought upon the community and must be made up for, somewhere, by somebody. The Native will not give time or thought to the weighing of guilt or desert; either he fears that this may lead him too far, or he reasons that such things are no concerns of his. But he will devote himself, in endless speculations, to the method by which crime or disaster shall be weighed up in sheep and goats - time does not count to him; he leads you solemnly into a sacred maze of sophistry.
— Karen Blixen, Out of Africa
For me, taking the sort of dry principles of the law and bringing them into contact with human beings . . . it's like you jump into hyperspace. And everything that's dull about the books and the theory becomes provocative.
— Michael Ponsor, The Hanging Judge
Justice is doing for others what we would want done for us.
— Gary Haugen
Their quarry had been cornered in his defenses and their bloodlust was such that they were likely to pay top Julep to watch him escape, so that he might be brutalized and killed before their very eyes, as this was much more gratifying to them than simply watching justice be enacted. They, too, understood that societal constructs for justice were moderate gratification, at best, as they were empty and subject to contradictions and compromises steeped in moral relativism and an unconditional dependence upon overblown semantics that made the law a mockery of itself. As for the ideologies that these hollow systems of jurisprudence sought to define and uphold: these could easily be subjugated through a meticulous analysis of the trivial components of one statute or another. The rule of law had failed them. What the people wanted, in its stead, was rather simple: moral absolutes. Good versus evil. And evil was not to be simply prevailed over. Evil was to be dominated and effectively eliminated, because as long as it was able to while away the time somewhere—in some sweaty prison cell, far away, staring out the barred window with a wry smile, as it plotted its next offensive on the Common Good, a sense of wholeness could not be achieved.
— Ashim Shanker, Don't Forget to Breathe
They all come innocent in court.
— Ljupka Cvetanova, The New Land
Shed not recklessly the blood of another with thy sword,Lest the Sword on High falls upon thy neck.
— Guru Gobind Singh, Zafarnama
I wasn't built to look the other way because the law demanded it. The law might be wrong.
— Joe Biden, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics
The only way I can keep clear of force is by justice. Far from being willing to execute his enemies, a real king must be willing to execute his friends.
— T.H. White, The Candle in the Wind/The Book of Merlyn
Hold mirth tight against your breast, but answer every injury with bladed heart.
— Chris Galford, At Faith's End
I have not harmed her. I have not allowed harm to come to her. It's more than her lot has ever offered me, and English has seen what befalls them when they press the boot on our necks. She has survived the wages of justice through luck, mettle, and wit enough to open her eyes.English finally sees.If I'm to be ruled, may it be by those who see.
— J Anderson Coats, Wicked and the Just
I dunno why you hate us so much.  I dunno why you hate me so much.  I dunno why you're calling Guillory a traitor when he's the furthest thing from it.  But don't call what you're doing justice.  Don't talk about punishment and crimes.  Whatever your agenda is, it passed 'justice' by long ago.
— Addison Lane, Drowning Fergus
When you look in the mirror and don't like what you see, how can you expect anyone to see you unlike you see yourself. Make you someone you like, and you will learn to love yourself. That is the first step in the quest for Love and acceptance.
— Daniel R. Gadberry, The Man Who Got Away: Not Your Typical Christmas Story
Instead of saying; "WWJD (What would Jesus do)?" I will be asking myself "WIDTM(Will I Do This Do Myself"Because Jesus said, "Love your neighbors as if you love yourself."So I will quote I will treat others as if I am treating myself
— Temitope Owosela
A king who is renowned for mercy," said the Arobern, with heavy irony, "must also be renowned in equal measure for injustice.
— Rachel Neumeier, Land of the Burning Sands
I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't imagine someone else's point of view.
— Sonia Sotomayor, My Beloved World
Whatever criticism we may have for Jonah, at least it can be said that Jonah was consistent. This legalistic, over-judgmental, young prophet will consistently proscribe the most severe form of punishment for the guilty--even when the guilty party is himself. The young Jonah hijacks written Torah to condemn everyone--even himself.
— Michael Ben Zehabe, A Commentary on Jonah
I've been in auditions without screens, and I can assure you that I was prejudiced. I began to listen with my eyes, and there is no way that your eyes don't affect your judgement. The only true way to listen is with your ears and your heart. (p.251)
— Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Hawaii once had a rat problem. Then, somebody hit upon a brilliant solution. import mongooses from India. Mongooses would kill the rats. It worked. Mongooses did kill the rats. Mongooses also killed chickens, young pigs, birds, cats, dogs, and small children. There have been reports of mongooses attacking motorbikes, power lawn mowers, golf carts, and James Michener. in Hawaii now, there are as many mongooses as there once were rats. Hawaii had traded its rat problem for a mongoose problem. Hawaii was determined nothing like that would ever happen again.How could Leigh-Cheri draw for Gulietta the appropriate analogy between Hawaii's rodents and society at large? Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.
— Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker
When we destroy it." She spoke clearly now, steadily now. "If it comes in a form with a dick, I will personally castrate it".
— Nora Roberts, The Pagan Stone
Jack Holloway told me he would get the son of a bitch who killed my child and the mate of my child," Papa continued. "Jack Holloway did get that son of a bitch. Jack Holloway got you. You are the man who killed my child. Get off my planet, you son of a bitch.
— John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation
There are a lot of myths which make the human race cruel and barbarous and unkind. Good and Evil, Sin and Crime, Free Will and the like delusions made to excuse God for damning men and to excuse men for crucifying each other.
— Clarence Darrow
Let me tell you what justice is. Justice is the law. And that man's feeble attempt to lay down the principles of deceny.
— Morgan Freeman
I don't know who you are; you could be an axe murderer for all I know. How am I supposed to trust you and follow you? For that matter, follow you where?" Gabe inquired."Search yourself, what do your instincts tell you?" Uri asked."That you're a crazy nut job and freaking me out!" Gabe snapped back.
— Wendy Owens, Sacred Bloodlines
He jokingly thought that this guy fancied himself some kind of Jedi knight, waiting for him to say, 'these are not the droids you're looking for.
— Wendy Owens, Sacred Bloodlines
Sympathy of victims and humanity of us question the stronghold of integrity towards justice.
— M.F. Moonzajer
You feel like you're cursed. Death follows you wherever you go and you feel completely abandoned. You wish it would all end for you. You think that death would be a release, yet something compels you forward."The blood drained from Gabe's face as he listened to Uri speak. "You're not alone, Gabe, there are many more like us and we want to help you.
— Wendy Owens, Sacred Bloodlines
After all, people seemed quite easy about having their rights and liberties taken away by those they looked up to, but somehow a space on the perch was a slap in the face, and treated as such.
— Terry Pratchett, Snuff
All the buildings of justice will remain idle on the day when all men have high conscience!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
Moreover, they who returned, if any, would be flogged, as seemed proper, after due examination. And though the news of their beatings might help all others to hesitation, ere they did foolishly, in like fashion, yet was the principle of the flogging not on this base, which would be both improper and unjust; but only that the one in question be corrected to the best advantage for his own well-being; for it is not meet that any principle of correction should shape to the making of human signposts of pain for the benefit of others; for in verity, this were to make one pay the cost of many's learning; and each should owe to pay only so much as shall suffice for the teaching of his own body and spirit. And if others profit thereby, this is but accident, however helpful. And this is wisdom, and denoteth now that a sound Principle shall prevent Practice from becoming monstrous.
— William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land
Do you really suppose God cares whether a man comes to good or ill?""If He did not, He could not be good himself...""...Then He can't be so hard on us as the parsons say, even in the after-life?""He will give absolute justice, which is the only good thing. He will spare nothing to bring His children back to himself, their sole well-being, whether He achieve it here--or there.
— George MacDonald, The Fisherman's Lady
The truth! Since when have the majority on Earth cared about the truth?
— Robert Peate
Justice fails because victims used to be too kind and criminals too clever.
— M.F. Moonzajer
You can’t bring justice with a kind heart
—  even if you could it won’t last.
You'd like Freedom, Truth, and Justice, wouldn't you, Comrade Sergeant?' said Reg encouragingly.'I'd like a hard-boiled egg,' said Vimes, shaking the match out.There was some nervous laughter, but Reg looked offended.'In the circumstances, Sergeant, I think we should set our sights a little higher--''Well, yes, we could,' said Vimes, coming down the steps. He glanced at the sheets of papers in front of Reg. The man cared. He really did. And he was serious. He really was. 'But...well, Reg, tomorrow the sun will come up again, and I'm pretty sure that whatever happens we won't have found Freedom, and there won't be a whole lot of Justice, and I'm damn sure we won't have found Truth. But it's just possible that I might get a hard-boiled egg.
— Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
Avoiding conflict isn’t peacemaking. Avoiding conflict means running away from the mess while peacemaking means running into the middle of it. Peacemaking means addressing those issues that caused conflict in the first place. Peacemaking can never be separated from doing justice. They go hand in hand. Peacemaking means having to stir the waters on the way to peace. Peacemaking means speaking the truth in love, but speaking the truth nonetheless.
— Peggy Haymes, Strugglers, Stragglers and Seekers: daily devotions for the rest of us
Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.
— Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
When a man kills another man, the people say he is a murderer, but when the Emir kills him, the Emir is just. When a man robs a monastery, they say he is a thief, but when the Emir robs him of his life, the Emir is honourable. When a woman betrays her husband, they say she is an adulteress, but when the Emir makes her walk naked in the streets and stones her later, the Emir is noble. Shedding of blood is forbidden, but who made it lawful for the Emir? Stealing one's money is a crime, but taking away one's life is a noble act. Betrayal of a husband may be an ugly deed, but stoning of living souls is a beautiful sight. Shall we meet evil with evil and say this is the Law? Shall we fight corruption with greater corruption and say this is the Rule? Shall we conquer crimes with more crimes and say this is Justice? Had not the Emir killed an enemy in his past life? Had he not robbed his weak subjects of money and property? Had he not committed adultery? Was he infallible when he killed the murderer and hanged the thief in the tree? Who are those who hanged the thief in the tree? Are they angels descended from heaven, or men looting and usurping? Who cut off the murderer's head? Are they divine prophets, or soldiers shedding blood wherever they go? Who stoned that adulteress? Were they virtuous hermits who came from their monasteries, or humans who loved to commit atrocities with glee, under the protection of ignorant Law? What is Law? Who saw it coming with the sun from the depths of heaven? What human saw the heart of God and found its will or purpose? In what century did the angels walk among the people and preach to them, saying, "Forbid the weak from enjoying life, and kill the outlaws with the sharp edge of the sword, and step upon the sinners with iron feet?
— Kahlil Gibran, Spirits Rebellious/The Madman/The Forerunner
I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.
— Desmond Tutu
As long as you're scared you're on the plantation.
— Cornel West
Millions of tears have fallen for black sons, brothers, lovers, and friends whose assailants took or maimed their lives and then simply went on their way.
— Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.
After everything, you still want to believe that love prevails, that in the end there will be justice. That is an illusion, and I pity you.
— Jessica Fortunato, Sacrifice
Truth is the summit of being
—  justice is the application of it to affairs.
Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts, -a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, though it may be, -"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,As his corse to the rampart were hurried;Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot,O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
— Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience