Justice quotes

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.

Rights of Man, Part I; represented through Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg collection.

The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VIII; Project Gutenberg #3300. The historical spelling “recompence” is retained and the sentence belongs to a larger theoretical argument.

Frederick Douglass, Oration delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July 5, 1852, reviewed against the public-domain Wikisource transcription of the original oration. 'This Fourth July is yours, not mine' follows Douglass's contrast between the audience's national independence and the exclusion of enslaved Black Americans; it remains abolitionist indictment, not generic patriotism.

Twenty Years at Hull-House, Project Gutenberg #1325. Addams is describing the democratic and social motives that drew young reformers toward settlement work; the sentence belongs to a historical argument for common civic life rather than a neutral empirical law.

Justice, represented by Project Gutenberg #2911. Mr. Justice Floyd speaks during Falder’s sentencing. The line belongs to a dramatic judge inside Galsworthy’s social critique and should not be detached as the author’s unqualified endorsement of the sentence.

The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), first-edition scholar / public-recognition passage, Wikisource scan leaf 28. “See Nations slowly wise, and meanly just” leads directly into the tardy-bust image of posthumous recognition. The first-edition transcription uses a comma after “just”; this collection’s semicolon is a retained punctuation normalization. This is Johnson’s historical-satirical judgment, not an empirical law of social progress.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV states the principle in a compact sentence about access to teaching.

The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. Hamilton makes the statement in a revolutionary-era pamphlet defending natural-rights arguments against Samuel Seabury. It is a historical political position and should not be treated as current constitutional or legal advice.

The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VIII, “Of the Wages of Labour,” Project Gutenberg #3300. Smith follows this sentence by arguing that workers who feed, clothe and lodge society should receive enough of the produce of their labour to be tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.

Letter dated April 6, 1859.

Rights of Man; Paine’s constitutional argument is preserved as historical political theory rather than converted into generic motivation.

Poor Richard’s Almanack; one of Franklin’s compact comparisons about disputes and practical judgment.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part II, Section II, discussion comparing justice with beneficence and the obligations that society may enforce.

Laws, Book IX, the Athenian Stranger replying to Cleinias while designing criminal laws for an imagined city. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1750. This is the concluding clause of a longer first-person definition that begins “And now I can define to you clearly”; preserving it as an extract does not make it a remark by Socrates (who is absent from Laws).

On Liberty, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #34901. Mill’s next argument is epistemic as well as political: suppressing an opinion can deprive everyone of truth or of the clearer understanding created when truth is tested against error.

Closing defense argument in the Boston Massacre soldiers’ trial, December 1770, preserved by Founders Online. The line belongs to courtroom advocacy about evidence and due process in a specific criminal proceeding.

De Officiis, Book I, section 23; Cicero defines good faith through truth and fidelity to promises and agreements.

A Theologico-Political Treatise — Part III, Chapter XIV, paragraph 77, Project Gutenberg #991. The frozen catalog preserves the opening of Spinoza’s longer sentence; the paragraph continues by condemning teachings tending toward obstinacy, hatred, strife and anger and praising justice and charity. This is seventeenth-century theological / political philosophy, not a modern empirical claim.

Plato, Protagoras, approximately Stephanus 329c–d; Socrates asks Protagoras about the unity of virtue after the sophist describes civic instruction and the acquisition of good character. Protagoras, not Socrates, answers that its qualities are distinct parts. Exact sentence from Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1591, in the dialogue proper after the opening philosophical and mythic arguments, not in translator commentary.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men; Wollstonecraft is criticizing sentimental rhetoric in Burke, so the passage should not be read as a rejection of compassion itself.

An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, Project Gutenberg #68724. Wollstonecraft connects “Respect thyself” with religion, justice and self-love while criticizing social arrangements that encourage people to sacrifice truthful character for status.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part II, Section II, Chapter III; the sentence contrasts justice as society’s foundation with beneficence as its ornament.

Civil Disobedience; represented Wikisource text. This sentence belongs to Thoreau’s abolitionist and antiwar case for noncooperation with an unjust government, not a context-free instruction for ordinary legal disputes.

Address to the People of the United States, at a Convention of Colored Men, Louisville, Kentucky, September 1883; “Education” section of Three Addresses (Washington: Gibson Bros., 1886), Project Gutenberg #67919. The printed introduction dates the address September 24. Douglass calls for federal support for universal education during Reconstruction’s aftermath; this is historical policy advocacy, not present-day legal advice.

The Republic, Book I, Socrates replying to Polemarchus in the examination of the maxim that justice helps friends and harms enemies. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1497. The source presents a question in dialogue, not a standalone personal motto from Plato; the moral argument considers whether hurting someone can make that person better.

Crito, Socrates questioning Crito during the prison discussion after establishing a rule against retaliation; Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1657. The sentence begins after Socrates says he will put the next point as a question. The question is not an unqualified defense of obedience to every law; the dialogue stages an argument about obligations to the city.

The Republic, Book IV; the statement summarizes a definition developed within Socrates’ argument about the ordered city.

Rights of Man, Part II; historical political argument about representative government and the rule of law.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 79, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill contrasts command-and-obedience relations with equal association and states that society in equality is the normal state toward which improving social relations should move.

The Republic, Book I, close of Socrates’s argument with Thrasymachus about the function and excellence of the soul. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1497. It belongs to a provisional exchange that ends with Socrates acknowledging that the inquiry has not fully determined what justice is; it is not a scientific claim about the soul.

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), public-domain text also preserved in The Works of John Locke. Locke immediately distinguishes civil government from religion and argues that persecution should not be disguised as care for souls. His historical position had limits, so this page does not present the letter as a complete modern theory of equal religious freedom.

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892), “SELF-HELP,” represented by Project Gutenberg #14975. Wells writes “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press” while explaining why Black newspapers needed resources to investigate and publish suppressed facts about lynching. This is historical anti-lynching journalism and civic argument, not a general empirical rule about media effects.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III discussion of the general rules of morality; Smith contrasts exact rules of justice with more flexible rules of prudence and generosity.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 1, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.

Adam Bede; Adam speaks during the crisis surrounding Hetty’s trial, explicitly reconsidering his earlier hardness.

A Christmas Sermon, section III, Project Gutenberg #14535. In the discussion of intervention, revenge and defending a neighbour, Stevenson says one person’s happiness is as sacred as another’s and argues for defending the injured party when both cannot be protected. The inherited section-II note is corrected here after direct source review; “sacred” is moral rhetoric, not modern legal doctrine.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book II connects moral recognition with the courage required for action.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; the passage rejects a separate moral standard built around sex rather than shared human duties.

On Liberty, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #34901. This sentence follows Mill’s harm-principle formulation and belongs to a political-philosophical argument about the legitimate limits of social and legal interference. It is not a claim that every private action has no effects or obligations toward other people.

“The Status of Woman, Past, Present, and Future,” The Arena, May 1897, pp. 901–908; exact passage independently preserved in the complete Santa Rosa public-library transcription, PDF p. 5. Anthony says legal reforms will not produce complete equality until women help make laws and elect law-makers. The hyphenated “law-makers” wording is retained; this remains historical suffrage advocacy rather than current legal advice.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening pages; the sentence immediately follows her statement that she contends for the rights of men and liberty of reason.

Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860. The sentence appears in Lincoln’s closing argument about opposing slavery’s spread and should not be detached into a context-free command about every disputed duty.

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, “Credo,” originally published in 1920. Project Gutenberg #15210. The sentence continues with freedom of association, movement, thought, dream and work “uncursed by color.”

Project Gutenberg #2680, correspondence appendix, Ad M. Caes. iii. 5. Marcus replies after Fronto agrees to moderate his prosecution in the Herodes Atticus dispute. The sentence concerns forensic restraint and personal feeling in that historical exchange.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 2, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 3, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill places the burden of proof on restrictions and unequal privilege, stating that the a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 78, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that equality of married persons before the law is required for justice to both sides and for marriage to become a school of moral cultivation rather than legal subordination.

The Age of Reason, Part I, Chapter I, “The Author’s Profession of Faith”; Moncure Daniel Conway collected/edited text represented by Project Gutenberg #3743 and cross-checked against Wikisource. The retained catalog wording says “I believe in the equality of man,” while the Conway/Gutenberg and Wikisource witness reads “I believe the equality of man.” This collection keeps its frozen legacy wording and discloses the edition-level variant rather than silently rewriting it. The passage is Paine’s deist profession of faith joining equality, justice, mercy and the happiness of fellow-creatures.

The Conservation of Races, Academy Creed, point 6; Project Gutenberg #5685. This is Du Bois’s own programmatic statement. The essay’s broader nineteenth-century racial theory remains historical context and is not presented as current biological science.