Those eternal laws of justice, which are our rule and our birthright.

– Edmund Burke 1729-1797

Justice being destroyed, will destroy; being preserved will preserve. It must never therefore be violated.

Manu 1200 BC

I firmly believed all along that the law was on our side and would, when we appealed to it, give us justice. I feel shorn of that belief and utterly discouraged and just now, if it were possible, would gather my race in my arms and fly away with them. Oh God, is there no redress, no peace, no justice in the land for us?

Ida Barrett Wells 1862-1931

To demand freedom is to demand justice. When there is no justice in the land, a man’s freedom is threatened. Freedom and justice are interdependent. When a man has no protection under the law it is difficult for him to make others recognize him.

James Cone 1938

The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky,  justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.

Anonymous

All goes awry and lawless in the land, where power takes the place of justice.

Margaret of Austria 1480-1530

Who shall put his finger on the work of justice and say, “Is it there”? Justice is like the kingdom of God – it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning.

Mary Ann Evans; nom de plume, George Elliot 1819-1880

Justice is indispensable for the conduct of business. Its importance is so great that not even those that live by wickedness and crime can get on without some small share of justice.

Cicero, 106 – 43 BC

Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn 1918 − 2008

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable right of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations

When any of the four pillars of government, religion, justice, counsel and treasure are mainly shaken or weakened, men have need to pray for fair weather.

Francis Bacon 1561-1626

If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers and judges or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected – those, precisely who need the law’s protection most! – and listens to their testimony.

James Baldwin 1924-1987

The world rests on three things: justice, truth and peace.

The three are really one, for when justice is done, truth prevails and peace is established.

Talmud

Children, being honest, love justice; adults being corrupt, naturally prefer mercy.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1874-1936

There are still people that do not have access to justice. The message for this class is that nobody should be left out. There are not enough programs to help frustrated teenagers handle their anger, nor to protect the nation’s children and elderly from abuse and neglect…Call it as you see it and don’t be afraid.

Janet Reno, 1938 – Attorney General of the United States

I believe in divine justice – even in our materialistic world – but I know it works through the instrumentality of human beings sufficiently in tune with it to strive for its execution.

Etta Shriber 

These are the laws of justice which Hammurabi the able king has established: That the strong may not oppress the weak, to give justice to the orphan and the widow. I have inscribed my precious words to my stele.

Hammurabi 1792-1750 BC

Thwackum was for doing justice and leaving mercy to heaven.

Henry Fielding, 1707-1754
“Tom Jones”

Justice is the first of virtues, for unsupported by justice, valor is good for nothing; and if all men were just, there would be no need for valor.

Plutarch 444-360 BC

The law is not the private property of lawyers, nor is justice the exclusive province of judges and juries. In the final analysis, true justice is not a matter of courts and law books but of a commitment in each of us to liberty and mutual respect.

Jimmy Carter 1924-

It is the daily; it is the small; it is the cumulative injuries of little people that we are here to protect…If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.

Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand 1872-1961

Dicite justitiam
Learn justice.

Publius Virgilius Maro 70-19 BC

That’s justice?
Me giving Jackie Onassis money?

Ron Galella 1932

Justice is the bread of the nation; it is always hungry for it.

Chateaubriand 1768-1848

My grandmother wanted to live long enough to vote for a woman president. I’ll be satisfied if I live to see a woman go before the Supreme Court and hear the justices acknowledge, “Gentlemen, she’s human. She deserves the protection of our laws.”

Martha Wright Griffiths 1912-2003