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Quotes about justice, verified at the source

Updated on How we verify quotes

Mercy and revenge, law and its abuses, the weak before the powerful: these quotes come from playwrights, essayists and statesmen. Each has been checked word for word in the original work.

They often serve in a speech, a plea, an essay or a debate.

Contents

Formal

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

Voltaire, Zadig, or Destiny, chapter “The Minister”, 1747 Verified quote Read its story
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According to whether you are powerful or wretched, the judgments of the court will make you white or black.

Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, “The Animals Sick of the Plague”, Book VII, fable 1 (last lines), 1678 Verified quote Read its story
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There is no crueller tyranny than that which is exercised under the shadow of the laws and with the colours of justice.

Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, chapter XIV, 1734 Verified quote Read its story
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Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670 Verified quote Read its story
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We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, second paragraph, 1776 Verified quote Read its story
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Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government), 1849 Verified quote Read its story
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The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene 1 (Portia), 1597 Verified quote Read its story
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Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, closing words, as inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial, 1863 Verified quote Read its story
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Funny

Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670 Verified quote Read its story
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If the law supposes that, the law is a ass—a idiot.

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, chapter 51 (chapter 49 of the three-volume edition of 1838), Mr Bumble, 1838 Verified quote Read its story
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Short

Revenge is a kind of wild justice.

Francis Bacon, Essays, “Of Revenge”, opening words, 1625 Verified quote Read its story
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If there is no struggle there is no progress.

Frederick Douglass, West India Emancipation, speech delivered at Canandaigua, New York, 3 August 1857, 1857 Verified quote Read its story
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Originally in Arabic · English translation

Injustice heralds the ruin of civilization.

Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, Book I, preamble; also the title of a chapter of the same book, 1377 Sourced text Read the original and its meaning
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Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Du contrat social), Book I, chapter I, 1762 Verified quote Read its story
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Frequently asked questions

Can I cite these lines in school work?

Yes: every quote names the author, the work and the year, and a link leads to the passage in the text. Cite the full source.