In a world where people have different ideas about what is fair and just, justice remains one of the important ideals of human aspiration. From the ancient halls of civilization to the modern courtroom corridors, justice has been a guiding light directing societies toward fairness, equity, and morality. Here are the best justice quotes that will inspire you to treat others with fairness and remind you to always stand for the right.
What is Justice?
Justice is the quality of treating people impartially and behaving in a morally right way. It is an ideal we strive for to create a fair and equitable society. It is a moral bedrock that allows people to enjoy their fundamental human rights.
The concept of justice encompasses the fair treatment of individuals, irrespective of factors such as skin color, gender, financial status, or beliefs, especially in a society where unfairness and discrimination happen.
Have you ever wondered why there are rules and laws?
Laws and regulations are made to protect individuals from harm and ensure that justice is served. They act as a framework for creating a just and secure environment for all members of society.
Governments and democracy play an important role in upholding justice, as they are responsible for enforcing laws that protect the fundamental rights and well-being of individuals.
The motto of the United States Supreme Court is “Equal Justice Under Law.” These words express the ultimate responsibility of the Supreme Court to ensure fairness, treating everyone equally within the framework of the law.
Here is a list of inspirational justice quotes from the mouths of powerful leaders, activists, and thinkers to the pens of famous philosophers to inspire you to stand against injustice and fight for a fair society.
Top 10 Justice Quotes
- “The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.” — Plato
Justice Quotes - “Justice delayed is justice denied.” — William E. Gladstone
- “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” — Cornel West
Best Quotes About Justice - “Justice is doing for others what we would want done for us.” — Gary Haugen
Quotes Regarding Justice - “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK Quotes About Justice - “Never mistake law for justice. Justice is an ideal, and law is a tool.” — L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Quotes On Justice - “The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.” — Bryan Stevenson
- “Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” — James Baldwin
Social Justice Quotes - “The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.” — Lois McMaster Bujold
Famous Quotes About Justice - “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” — Benjamin Franklin
Famous Quotes About Justice
- “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” — Adam Smith
- “Never pray for justice, because you might get some.” — Margaret Atwood
- “It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.” — Earl Warren
- “Justice is what love sounds like when it speaks in public.” — Michael Eric Dyson
- “Somebody has to stand when other people are sitting. Somebody has to speak when everyone else is quiet.” — Bryan Stevenson
- You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” — Malcom X
- “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” — Elie Wiesel
- “There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.” — Blaise Pascal
- “Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.” — John Lewis
Justice Quotes For Equality In Society
- “Justice is the sum of all moral duty.” — William Godwin
- “It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.” — Aristotle
- “If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice.” — bell hooks
- “Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances.” — Benjamin N. Cardozo
- “Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.” — D. H. Lawrence
- “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone id for it.” — William Penn
- “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.” — Sophocles
- “Women’s rights are not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about us; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.” — Toni Morrison
- “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.” — Nelson Mandela
- “When we choose to protect others, we are also protecting ourselves. We cannot achieve climate justice, without uplifting and supporting all communities.” — Intersectional Environmentalist
- “Justice is possible without equality, I believe, because of compassion and understanding. If I have compassion, then if I have more than you, which is unequal, I will still do the just thing by you.” — Bell Hooks
Inspirational Justice Quotes About Fairness
- “Justice is truth in action.” — Benjamin Disraeli
- “Justice and judgment lie often a world apart.” — Emmeline Pankhurst
- “If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.” — Francis Bacon
- “Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” — Unknown
- “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice, he is the worst.” — Aristotle
- “Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity.” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- “Justice has nothing to do with what goes on on a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom.” — Clarence Darrow
- “Justice has nothing to do with victor nations and vanquished nations, but must be a moral standard that all the world’s peoples can agree to. To seek this and to achieve it – that is true civilization.” — Hideki Tojo
- “Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political, and religious relationships.” — A. Philip Randolph
Justice Quotes About Peace And Happiness
- “If you want peace, work for justice.” — Pope Paul VI
- “Peace without justice is tyranny.” — William Allen White
- “Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Without justice and love, peace will always be a great illusion.” ― Dom Helder Camara
- “Justice must not only be seen to be done, but has to be seen to be believed.” — J. B. Morton
- “We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.” — Jimmy Carter
- “For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” — Winston Churchill
- “The world would be a paradise of peace and justice if global citizens shared a common definition of love which would guide our thoughts and action.” — Bell Hooks
- “There really can be no peace without justice. There can be no justice without truth. And there can be no truth unless someone rises up to tell you the truth.” — Louis Farrakhan
- “We need to keep making our streets safer and our criminal justice system fairer – our homeland more secure, our world more peaceful, and sustainable for the next generation.” — Barack Obama
Social Justice Quotes
- “Justice does not equal revenge.” — Carl Ellis Jr.
- “Equality of opportunity is the essence of social justice.” — Tony Honore
- “Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.” — Charles Dickens
- “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “Justice is not something God has. Justice is something that God is.” — A.W. Tozer
- “Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.” — Blaise Pascal
- “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” — Theodore Parker
- “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” ― Albert Einstein
- “If our social justice is guided by retribution, we will simply perpetuate the use and abuse of power to inflict violence.” — Jamie Arpin-Ricci
- “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” — Reinhold Niebuhr
- “The greatest movement for social justice our country has ever known is the civil rights movement and it was totally rooted in a love ethic.” — bell hooks
- “Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained.” — Helen Keller
- “It takes no compromise to give people their rights… it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.” — Harvey Milk
Best Quotes On Justice
- “Without justice there can be no love.” — Bell Hooks
- “Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
- “Law is not law, if it violates the principles of eternal justice.” — Lydia Maria Child
- “Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.” — Desmond Tutu
- “Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.” — Denis Diderot
- “Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.” — Gloria Steinem
- “It is essential that justice be done, and it is equally vital that justice not be confused with revenge, for the two are wholly different.” — Oscar Arias
- “The restorative justice movement is grounded in values that promote both accountability and healing for all affected by crime.” — Mark Umbreit
- “Justice and revenge are not the same thing. Justice is a continuum that includes accountability, change toward preventing further injustice, strategic hope, etc.” — Bernice King
- “Rather than justice for all, we are evolving into a system of justice for those who can afford it. We have banks that are not only too big to fail, but too big to be held accountable.” — Joseph E. Stiglitz
Fight For Justice Quotes
- “Justice always whirls in equal measure.” — William Shakespeare
- “People who don’t expect justice don’t have to suffer disappointment.” — Isaac Asimov
- “Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned.” — Anatole France
- “True peace required the presence of justice, not just the absence of conflict.” — N.K. Jemisin
- “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” — Desmond Tutu
- “Justice is about making them pay for [her] pain. Revenge is making them pay for yours.” — Erica O’Rourke
- “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” — John Lewis
- “Continue to speak out against all forms of injustice to yourselves and others, and you will set a mighty example for your children and for future generations.” — Bernice King
- “We have a right to protest for what is right. That’s all we can do. There are people hurting, there are people suffering, so we have an obligation, a mandate, to do something.” — John Lewis
- “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” — Frederick Douglass
MLK Quotes About Justice
- “Without justice there can be no peace.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “The moral arc of the universe is long. but it bends toward justice.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Peace is more important than all justice, and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. 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.
- “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
More Justice Quotes And Sayings
- “Conscience is the chamber of justice.” — Origen
- “Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.” — Jacques Diouf
- “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” — Malcolm X
- “The trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs.” — Unknown
- “Always seek justice, but love only mercy. To love justice and hate mercy is but a doorway to more injustice.” — Criss Jami
- “Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.” — Francis Bacon
- “Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other — that my liberty depends on you being free too.” — Barack Obama
- “Feminist thinking teaches us all, especially, how to love justice and freedom in ways that foster and affirm life.” — Bell Hooks
- “Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.” — Coretta Scott King
- “The cause of justice is the cause of humanity. Its advocates should overflow with universal goodwill. We should love this cause, for it conduces to the general happiness of mankind.” — William Godwin
- “Justice demands integrity. It’s to have a moral universe — not only know what is right or wrong but to put things in perspective, weigh things. Justice is different from violence and retribution; it requires complex accounting.” — Bell Hooks
Conclusion
Justice is a cornerstone in the journey towards creating a society based on the ideals of fairness, equality, and moral integrity. It makes sure that things are fair and people are treated right.
Unfortunately, few criminals are successful in escaping the consequences of their actions by exploiting their knowledge of legal intricacies to evade justice.
However, the truth has a way of prevailing and justice, even if it takes some time, ultimately prevails.
Feel free to share these powerful justice quotes and sayings with friends and family on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and more to spread positive vibes.
If you like these quotes about justice from government then check our posts on stand up for yourself quotes and resilience quotes to encourage you to pursue justice and fairness in your own life.
If we have missed some quotes, share it with us in the comment section below and we shall be happy to add it to the list.
