Tao Te Ching
Justice
Historically, civilizations, governments, religions, and cultures normally define “justice” from their own, self-serving points of view. Justice is obedience, injustice disobedience. Despots have defined it as obeying their will. More democratic societies define it as conformity to the laws they make up, religions as following their rules, and—in the Eastern traditions—the law of Karma, natural cause and effect. The central theme in both the Republic and the Goegias of Plato, the discussion has gone down through the ages permeating much of philosophical discussion. Plato pits those who believe “might makes right” against those proposing a higher, intrinsic quality of the right, the “just.” One side says, “the stronger do whatever they can and the weaker suffer whatever they must.” Opposing views define justice as the “fair,” and Aristotle discussed it in terms of equality saying, “Awards should be given according to merit” and Mill extended this idea to an “equality under the law” for all. The view of Karma characterizes justice as an inevitable, natural process where both the good/just/appropriate and the evil/unjust/wrong both result in more of the same.
Quotes (77)
“I am justice: clear, impartial, favoring no one, hating no one. But in those who have cured themselves of selfishness, I shine with brilliance.”
“demonstrate justice within the land, destroy evil and wickedness, stop the mighty from exploiting the weak”
“The blessed gods have no love for crime. They honor justice, honor the decent acts of men.”
“Fishes and wild beasts and winged birds should devour one another, since there is no justice in them; but to mankind he gave justice which proves for the best.”
“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”
“When a student asked Confucius about returning good for evil, he replied: 'With what then will you recompense kindness? Return good for good, and for evil, justice.'”
“The governments of latter-day society have not stored up the necessities of life, they have not diluted the purity of the world, destroyed the simplicity of the world, and made the people confused and hungry... law and justice are at odds”
“We must know that war is common to all and strife is justice, and that all things come into being and pass away through strife.”
“Keep alive the light of justice,
And much that men say in blame will pass you by.”
“One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.”
“The man who is wronged suffers injury in body or in external things, while the man who does wrong injures his own soul.”
“It was the principle of this Court that deterrent laws, however strict, are useless without positive moral discipline; that the happiness of citizens depends, not on having the walls of their porticoes covered with laws, but on having justice in their hearts.”
“What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.”
“Destruction of Tao and character in order to strive for humanity and justice—this is the error of the sages.”
“There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.”
“Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice. Virtue is its own reward.”
“Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice.”
“When the country is at peace, no one thinks about kindness and the people are free from desire. When the Tao prevails, kindness and justice vanish like the stars fading when the sun appears.”
“If you study the history and records of the world, you must admit that the source of justice is the fear of injustice.”
“A hungry people listens not to reason, nor cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers.”
“Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the bow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.”
“Confucius relied on kindness and justice, ritual and music to order the kingdom. Lao-tzu’s only concern was to open people’s minds”
“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature—opposition to it, is his love of justice.”
“Personal prejudice and financial greed are the two great evils that threaten courts of law, and once they get the upper hand they immediately hamstring society, by destroying all justice.”
“The nature of justice consists in the keeping of valid covenants… Where there is no Commonwealth, there is nothing unjust.”
“Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.”
“In a natural state, there is nothing which can be called just or unjust, only in a civil state”
“War is the greatest of all crimes; and yet there is no aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice.”
“Avarice and injustice are always shortsighted, and they did not foresee how much this regulation must obstruct improvement, and thereby hurt in the long-run the real interest of the landlord.”
“Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquainted with in themselves, to appreciate them in others.”
“It would have cost me more trouble to escape from injustice, than it does to submit to it.”
“The cause of justice is the cause of humanity. Its advocates should overflow with universal good will. We should love this cause, for it conduces to the general happiness of mankind.”
“Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.”
“Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction… they take license for liberty, treachery for patriotism, and vengeance for justice.”
“If justice ruled on earth it would be sufficient to have built one's house: it would require not further protection than this manifest right of possession. But because injustice is the order of the day, whoever bult the house must also be in a position to protect it”
“by nature and from the first, it is not justice that rules on earth but force... Justice is in itself powerless. To draw this over to the side of justice, so that by means of force justice rules—that is the problem of statecraft.”
“Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice... Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.”
“As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Remember particularly that you cannot be a judge of anyone. For no one can judge a criminal until he recognizes that he is just such a criminal as the man standing before him, and that he perhaps is more than all men to blame for that crime.”
“Laws are the product of selfishness, deception, and party prejudice. Trust justice is not in them and cannot be in them.”
“['God' is] but the expression for man's highest conception of goodness, wisdom, and power; that in order to generate a more vivid conception of so great and glorious a thought, man has personified it and called it by a name... people should no more cease to love God on ceasing to believe in His objective personality than they cease to love justice on discovering that she was not really personal; they will never truly know Him until they see Him thus.”
“Human rights and wrongs are not determined by Justice, but by Might. Disguise it as you may, the naked sword is still king-maker and king-breaker, as of yore. All other theories are lies and — lures.
”
“Today the two hundred million men in our country are entering into a civilized new world...but we, the two hundred million women, are still kept down in the dungeon... With all my heart I beseech and beg my two hundred million female compatriots to assume their responsibility as citizens. Arise! Arise! Chinese women, arise!”
“The bond that has united the Jews for thousands of years and that unites them today is, above all, the democratic ideal of social justice”
“We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.”
“"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."”
“Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.”
“When young people are asked, ‘What are you interested in?’ they answer that they are interested in justice: they want justice for the Negro, they want justice for the Third World. If you say, ‘Well, what is justice?’ they haven't any idea.”
“Equality of condition, though it is certainly a basic requirement for justice, is nevertheless among the greatest and most uncertain ventures of modern mankind. The more equal conditions are, the less explanation there is for the differences that actually exist between people; and thus all the more unequal do individuals and groups become.”
“those who believe with certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice.”
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
“The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don’t listen to it, you will never know what justice is.”
“The demand for justice runs through the entirety of the Jewish tradition. I hope, in my years on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and the courage to remain constant in the service of that demand.”
“A people inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism.”
“In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers. Real security will be found only in law and in justice.”
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