Suerlye my lorde, I thinke it not ryght nor justice, that the losse of money should cause the losse of mans life. For myne opinion is, that all the goodes in the worlde are not hable to countervayle mans life. But if they would thus say; that the breakynge of justice, and the transgression of the lawes is recompensed with this punishment, and not the losse of the money, then why maye not this extreme and rigorous justice wel be called plaine injurie? For so cruell govemaunce, so streite rules, and unmercyful lawes be not allowable, that if a small offense be committed, by and by the sword should be drawen: nor so stoical ordinaunces are to be borne withall, as to counte al offenses of suche equalitie, that the killing of a man, or the takyng of his money from him were both a matter, and the one no more heinous offense then the other: betwene the whyche two, yf we have anye respecte to equitie, no similitude or equalitie consisteth.
[tr. Robynson (1551)]

It seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a Man's Life for a little Mony; for notyhing in the World can be of equal value with a Man's Life: and if it is said, that it is not for the Mony that one suffers, but for his breaking the Law; I must say extream Justice is an extream Injury: for we ought not to approve of these terrible Laws that make the smallest Offences capital; nor of that Opinion of the Stoicks that makes all Crimes equal, as if there were no difference to be made between the killing of a Man, and the taking his Purse; between wich if we examine things impartially, there is no likeness nor proportion.
[tr. Burnet (1684)]

It seemeth very unjust to me to take away life for a little money, for nothing can be of equal value with life. And if it be said, that the suffering is not for the money, but for the breach of the law, I answer, extreme justice is an extreme injury. For we ought not to approve of those terrible laws, which make the smallest offences capital, nor of that opinion of the stoics which maketh all crimes equal: as if no difference were to be made between killing a man and taking his purse, between which, in reality, there is the greatest disproportion.
[tr. Cayley (1808)]

Surely my lord, I think it not right nor justice, that the loss of money should cause the loss of man’s life. For mine opinion is, that all the goods in the world are not able to countervail man’s life. But if they would thus say: that the breaking of justice, and the transgression of the laws is recompensed with this punishment, and not the loss of the money, then why may not this extreme justice well be called extreme injury? For neither so cruel governance, so strait rules, and unmerciful laws be allowable, that if a small offence be committed, by-and-by the sword should be drawn: nor so stoical ordinances are to be borne withal, as to count all offences of such equality that the killing of a man, or the taking of his money from him were both a matter, and the one no more heinous offence than the other: between the which two, if we have any respect to equity, no similitude or equality consisteth.
[tr. Robinson (1909 ed.)]

Certainly, right reverend father and my kind lord, I think it quite unjust that a man should lose his life for the loss of money. For in my opinion not all the goods that fortune can bestow on us can be set in the scale against a man's life. But if they say that this penalty is attached to the offence against justice and the breaking of the laws, and not to the theft of money, one may well style this extreme justice as extreme wrong. For we ought not to approve of such stern rules of law as should justify the drawing of the sword, when they are disobeyed in trifles, nor on the other hand such Stoical ordinances as count all offences equal, so that there is no difference whether one kills a man or robs him of a coin, when if equity has any meaning, there is no similarity or connexion between the two cases. God has said, "Thou shalt not kill," and shall we so lightly kill a man for taking a little money?
[tr. Richards (1923)]

Your Grace, it seems to me quite unjust to take a man's life because he's taken some money. To my mind, no amount of property is equivalent to a human life. If it's argued that the punishment is not for taking the money, but for breaking the law and violating justice, isn't this conception of absolute justice absolutely unjust? One really can’t approve of a régime so dictatorial that the slightest disobedience is punishable by death, nor of a legal code based on the Stoic paradox that all offences are equal — so that there’s no distinction in law between theft and murder, though in equity the two things are so completely different.
[tr. Turner (1965 ed.)]

Certainly, most reverend and kind Father, I think it altogether unjust that a man should suffer the loss of his life for the loss of someone’s money. In my opinion, not all the goods that fortune can bestow on us can be set in the scale against a man’s life. If they say that this penalty is attached to the offense against justice and the breaking of the laws, hardly to the money stolen, one may well characterize this extreme justice as extreme wrong. For we ought not to approve such stern Manlian rules of law as would justify the immediate drawing of the sword when they are disobeyed in trifles nor such Stoical ordinances as count all offenses equal so that there is no difference between killing a man and robbing him of a coin when, if equity has any meaning, there is no similarity or connection between the two cases.
[tr. Richards/Surtz (1964)]

It seems to me, most kind and reverend father, that it's altogether unjust to take away a man's life for the loss of someone's money. Nothing in the world that fortune can bestow is equal in value to a man's life. If they say the thief suffers not for the money, but for violation of justice and transgression of laws, then this extreme justice should really be called extreme injury. We ought not to approve of these fierce Manlian laws that invoke the sword for the smallest violations. Neither should we accept the Stoic view that considers all crimes equal, as if there were no difference between killing a man and taking a coin from him. If equity means anything, there is no proportion or relation at all between these two crimes.
[tr. Adams (1992 ed.)]

It is a rather singular argument to maintain that, because an abuse which has been permitted a temporary existence, cannot be corrected without wounding the interests of those who have profited by it, it ought, therefore, to claim perpetual duration.
[tr. McCord (1848)]

At all events, let no one pretend that because an abuse cannot be done away with, without inconvenience to those who profit by it, what has been suffered to exist for a time should be allowed to exist for ever.
[tr. Stirling (1873)]

For, indeed, what is the civil law? A thing which can neither be bent by influence, nor broken down by power, nor adulterated by corruption.
[tr. Yonge (1856)]

How may we describe it? The law is that which influence cannot bend, nor power break, nor wealth corrupt.
[tr. Grose Hodge (Loeb) (1927)]

I was even now considering, whence this generall errour commeth, that in all our desseignes and enterprises, of what nature soever, we immediately have recourse unto God, and in every necessitie, we call upon his holy name: And at what time soever wee stand in neede of any help, and that our weaknesse wanteth assistance, we onely invoke him, without considering whether the occasion be just or unjust; and what estate or action we be in, or go about, be it never so vicious or unlawfull, we call upon his name and power.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

It just now comes into my mind, from whence we should derive the error of having recourse to God in all our designs and enterprises, of applying to him in all our wants, and in all places where our weakness stands in need of support, without considering whether the occasion be just or otherwise, and of invoking his name and power, in what estate soever we are, or what action we are engaged in, how vicious soever.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

It just now came into my mind, whence it is we should derive that error of having recourse to God in all our designs and enterprises, to call Him to our assistance in all sorts of affairs, and in all places where our weakness stands in need of support, without considering whether the occasion be just or otherwise; and to invoke His name and power, in what state soever we are, or action we are engaged in, howsoever vicious.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

I was reflecting just now on whence comes this error of ours of having recourse to God in all our schemes and undertakings, and of calling upon him in every sort of necessity and in whatsoever place our weakness desires aid, without considering whether the occasion be responsible or unreasonable; and of invoking his name and his power, whatever condition and action we may be in, vicious though it may be.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

I was just now thinking about where that error of ours comes from, of having recourse to God in all our designs and enterprises, and calling on him in every kind of need and in whatever spot our weakness wants help, without considering whether the occasion is just or unjust, and invoking his name and his power, in whatever condition or action we are involved, however vicious it may be.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

What juster cause is there for waging war than the wish to repel slavery? in which, even if one's master be not tyrannical, yet it is a most miserable thing that he should be able to be so if he chooses.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

Is there any better reason for waging war than to ward off slavery? In slavery, even if the master is not oppressive, the sorry thing still is that he can be if he wishes.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

What cause for war is more just than the repulsion of slavery? even under a benign master, it is miserable that he has the power, if he wants to use it.
[tr. Wiseman]

• The origins of “Justice must be seen to be done”.
• R v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy - Wikipedia.

• The origins of “Justice must be seen to be done”.
• R v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy - Wikipedia.

One thing there is, and that only, which is worth our while in this world, and ought by us much to be esteemed; and that is, according to truth and righteousness, meekly and lovingly to converse with false, and unrighteous men.
[tr. Casaubon (1634), 6.42]

In a word. There's only one thing here worth the minding; And that is, not to imitate the Degeneracy of Mortals: But to be True, Honest, and Good-natur'd, even amongst Knaves, and Sharpers.
[tr. Collier (1701)]

The one thing valuable in this life, is, to spend it in a steady course of truth, justice, and humanity, toward even the false and unjust.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]

In short, there is nothing here much worth our attention, but to act on all occasions with a regard to truth and justice, and to live peaceably even with those who act with fraud and injustice.
[tr. Graves (1792), 6.41]

One thing here is worth a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.
[tr. Long (1862)]

Here one thing is of real worth, to live out life in truth and justice, with charity even to the false and the unjust.
[tr. Rendall (1898)]

The one precious thing in life is to spend it in a steady course of truth and justice, with kindliness even for the false and the unjust.
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]

One thing on earth is worth much -- to live out our lives in truth and justice, and in charity with liars and unjust men.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]

One thing here is of great price, to live out life with truth and righteousness, gracious to liars and to the unrighteous.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]

In this life one thing only is of precious worth: to live out one's days in truthfulness and fair dealing, and in charity even with the false and unjust.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]

In this world there is only one thing of real value, to pass our days in truth and justice, and yet be gracious to those who are false and unjust.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]

The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don't.
[tr. Hays (2003)]

In this world there is only one thing of value, to live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]

In this world there is only one thing of real value, to pass our days in truth and justice, and yet be gracious to those who are false and unjust.
[tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]

So there is one thing that is of most value: to live out your life in truth and justice and be kind to those who are false and unjust.
[tr. Gill (2013)]

So one thing is worth much: to keep on living with truth and justice and in good will even among liars and unjust men.
[tr. @sentantiq (2019)]

Perhaps the murder of your guests seems light,
We Greeks esteem it base. If I acquit thee
How shall I scape reproach? Indeed, I cannot:
since thou hast dar'd to perpetrate the crime,
Endure the consequences.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

Perhaps with you it is a slight thing to kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How then, in giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape blame? I can not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things unpleasant.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]

Haply with you guest-murder is as nought,
But to us which be Greeks foul shame is this.
How can I uncondemned adjudge thee guiltless?
I cannot. Forasmuch as thou hast dared
To do foul deeds, even drain thy bitter cup.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

Perhaps among you it is a light thing to murder guests, but with us in Hellas it is a disgrace. How can I escape reproach if I judge you not guilty? I could not. No, since you endured your horrid crime, endure as well its painful consequence.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]

Perhaps you think it is a trifling matter
to kill a guest.
We Greeks call it murder.
How, therefore, could I acquit you now
without losing face among men?
I could not do it.
You committed a brutal crime; therefore accept
the consequences of your act.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]

Perhaps for lesser breeds it's no great thing to kill a guest, but to us Greeks it is. If I say you did no wrong I can't escape the censure and the blame that I'll incur. Since you were tough enough to do such deeds be tough enough to suffer the results.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]

Maybe you think
killing a guest -- in this case a child who’d been
put in your care -- is a small matter in the larger
scheme of things. But we Greeks think of it
as heinous murder. How could I rule you innocent
and maintain a shred of credibility? I can’t.
You committed a brutal crime; be prepared,
therefore, for a justly brutal punishment.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]

For twofold ruin doth impend
O'er him who human laws pursue,
And righteous Gods indignant view.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

For where the rites of hospitality coincide with justice, and with the Gods, on the villain who dares to violate these destructive, destructive indeed impends the evil.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]

For wherever it cometh to pass that the rightful demand
Of justice's claim and the laws of the Gods be at one,
Then is ruinous bane for the sinner, O ruinous bane!
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

When the Gods and Justice meet,
And the Pledge that is forfeited,
The end is Ruin.
[tr. Sheppard (1924)]

For the rights of justice and of the gods do not fall together; there is ruin full of death and doom.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]

Justice and the gods
exact the loan at last.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]

When the gods call in their debt
and Justice wants your scalp as well,
better for you if you were dead
as your life will be one long hell.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]

Because when Justice and Heaven are both transgressed, there will be doom. Doom and more doom!
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]

Where justice and the gods converge, there’s a maelstrom.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]

For the good man's duty
Is to obey the dread behests of justice,
And ever punish those who act amiss.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

For it belongs to a good man to minister justice, and always and in every case to punish the bad.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]

For 'tis the good man's part to champion right,
And everywhere and aye to smite the wrong.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

This, this is virtue: to do justice still,
Requiting evil every way with ill.
[tr. Sheppard (1924)]

For it is always a good man's duty to help the right, and to punish evil-doers wherever found.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]

Do your duty as a man of honor:
see justice done. Punish this murder.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]

A good man is just, he'll punish the bad.
[tr. McGuinness (2004)]

A good man commits himself to justice and combats the wicked in whatever place.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]

Do your duty. Mete out justice.
Punish this heinous crime against gods and man.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]

For it is right that a good man serve justice
And always do evil everywhere to evil men.
[tr. @sentantiq (2020)]

The one great social principle is to be just both to yourself and to others. If you must love your neighbour as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbour.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902)]

Justice to oneself and to others is the first principle of all Society; and if we should love our neighbour as ourself, it is quite as just that we should love ourself as much as our neighbour.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

The principle of all society is to do justice to oneself and to others. If one should love one’s neighbor as oneself, it is at least equally just to love oneself as one does one’s neighbor.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

The principle of all society is to do justice to oneself and to others. If it is right to love the person next to us as ourselves, it is at least as right to love ourselves as much as the people next to us.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.

Justice insists on obligation, law on decorum. Justice weighs and decides, law superintends and orders. Justice refers to the individual, law to society.
[tr. Saunders (1893), "Life and Character," sec. 1, # 50]

Law deals with guilt, the police with what is fitting. Law considers and decides, the police surveys and commands. Law is concerned with the individual, the police with the community.
[tr. Stopp (1995), #544]

Else shall we cease to think that any Gods
Exist, if Villainy prevail o'er Justice.
[tr. Wodhull (1809); Electra speaking]

Else we must no longer believe in gods, if wrong is to be victorious over right.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

It behooves one no longer to think that there are Gods, if unjust deeds get the advantage of justice.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

We must believe no more
In Gods, if wrong shall triumph over right.
[tr. Way (1896)]

Else men shall know there is no God, no light
In Heaven, if wrong to the end shall conquer right.
[tr. Murray (1905)]

Else must we cease to believe in gods, if wrong is to triumph o'er right.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

For if wrongful acts
triumph over justice, then no longer
should we put any of our faith in gods.
[tr. Johnston (2009), l. 699ff]

Let no villain,
Tho' the first stage of his career he run
With prosperous Fortune, think he hath outstripp'd
Avenging Justice, till he reach the goal,
And end his life.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

Let none suppose, though he have run the first stage of his course with joy, that he will get the better of Justice, till he have reached the goal and ended his career.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

Let not a man, if he run the first course well, think he will win the victory, before he comes nigh the line, and turns the end of life.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

Let none dream, though at starting he run well,
That he outrunneth Justice, ere he touch
The very goal and reach the bourn of life.
[tr. Way (1896)]

O vaunt not, if one step be proudly made
In evil, that all Justice is o'ercast:
Vaunt not, ye men of sin, ere at the last
The thin-drawn marge before you glimmereth
Close, and the goal that wheels 'twixt life and death.
[tr. Murray (1905)]

So let no evildoer suppose, even if he runs the first step well, that he will get the better of Justice, until he comes to the end of the finish-line and makes the last turn in life.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

Let every criminal like him know that just because his first criminal steps went according to his wishes that he has not defeated Justice before his life’s end.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

May every criminal
see that he'll never win the race with Justice!
He may run quick at first, but play it out:
run on, right to the finish line of life.
[tr. Wilson (2016)]

Think not that the prosperity and riches of the wicked can endure, nor yet the generation of the bad; for Time, sprung from eternity, having a just rule in his hand, shows the wickedness of men.
[Source (1878)]

One ought never to imagine the success of a bad man, and his proud wealth, as secure, nor the lineage of unjust men; for time, which was born from nothing, adduces standards which are just and shows the wickedness of men in spite of all.
[tr. Collard, Hargreaves, Cropp (1995)]

It must not be believed
that the wicked thrive securely
though puffed-up-proud in their prosperity
nor the long line of injustices go on and on
uninterrupted -- Self-generating Time
(slowly -- slowly) lays
the yardstick of justice --
into the open (at least) brings
all iniquities of men.
For all that. For all that.
[tr. Stevens (2012)]

If nature does not ratify law, all the virtues lose their sway. What becomes of generosity, patriotism, or friendship? Where should we find the desire of benefitting our neighbours, or the gratitude that acknowledges kindness? For all these virtues proceed from our natural inclination to love and cherish our associates.
[tr. Barham (1842)]

And if Nature is not to be considered the foundation of Justice, that will mean the destruction [of the virtues on which human society depends]. For where then will there be a place for generosity, or love of country, or loyalty, or the inclination to be of service to others, or to show gratitude for favours received? For these virtues originate in our natural inclination to love our fellow-men, and this is the foundation of Justice.
[tr. Keyes (1928)]

That is why every virtue is abolished if nature is not going to support justice. What room will there be for liberality, patriotism, and devotion; or for the wish to serve others or to show gratitude? These virtues are rooted in the fact that we are inclined by nature to have a regard for others; and that is the basis of justice.
[tr. Rudd (1998)]

If nature will not confirm justice, all the virtues will be eliminated. Where will there be a place for liberality, for love of country, for piety, for the desire to do well by others or return kindness? These all arise because we are inclined by nature to love other humans, and that is the foundation of justice.
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]

And if right has not been confirmed by nature, they may be eliminated. In fact, where will liberality be able to exist, where affection for the fatherland, where piety, where the will either to deserve well of another or to or to return a service? These things originate in this, that we are inclined by nature to to cherish human beings; that is the foundation of right.
[tr. Fott (2013)]

There can be but one essential justice, which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked.
[tr. Barham (1842)]

For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked.
[tr. Barham/Yonge (1878)]

There is one, single, justice. It binds together human society and has been established by one, single, law. That law is right reason in commanding and forbidding. A man who does not acknowledge this law is unjust, whether it has been written down anywhere or not.
[tr. Rudd (1998)]

There is only one justice, which constitutes the bond among humans, and which was established by the one law, which is right reason in commands and prohibitions. The person who does not know it is unjust, whether the law has been written anywhere or not.
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]

Right is uniform; human fellowship has been bound by it, and one law has established it; that law is correct reason in commanding and prohibiting. He who is ignorant of it is unjust, whether it has been written somewhere or nowhere.
[tr. Fott (2013)]

But justice orders us to spare all, to consult the welfare of mankind, to give to every one his own, and to abstain from every thing that is sacred, every thing that is public, every thing which is not our own.
[tr. Featherstonhaugh (1829), ch. 12]

But justice commands us to have mercy upon all men, to consult the interests of the whole human race, to give to every one his due, and injure no sacred, public, or foreign rights, and to forbear touching what does not belong to us.
[tr. Barham (1841), ch. 12]

Justice, on the other hand, instructs us to spare all men, to consider the interests of the whole human race, to give everyone his due, and not to touch the sacred or public property, or that which belongs to others.
[tr. Keyes (1928)]

Justice, on the other hand, teaches you to spare all men, to consider the interests of the human race, to render to each his own, and not to tamper with that which is sacred, that which is public, and that which belongs to another. [tr. Sabine/Smith (1929)]

Justice, on the other hand, teaches us to spare all men, take thought for the interests of mankind, give everyone his due, and not lay hands on the things belonging to the gods, the state, or somebody else.
[tr. Rudd (1998)]

Justice instructs us to spare everyone, to look after the interests of the human race, to render to each his own, to keep hands off things that are sacred or public or belong to someone else.
[tr. Zetzel (1999), ch. 24b]

But justice instructs [us] to spare everyone, to take care of the human race, to render to each his own, not to touch sacred things, public things, another's things.
[tr. Fott (2014)]

Wherefore as the law is the bond of civil society, and equal rights form that of the law, by what power can a community of citizens be maintained, where their condition is not an equal one? If therefore it is not expedient to equalize fortunes; if the powers of mind cannot be equalized in all, certainly then an equality of rights ought to exist, among those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a state but a community of rights?
[tr. Featherstonhaugh (1829)]

Wherefore, since the law is the bond of civil society, and the justice of the law equal, by what rule can the association of citizens be held together, if the condition of the citizens be not equal? For if the fortunes of men cannot be reduced to this equality—if genius cannot be equally the property of all—rights, at least, should be equal among those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a republic but an association of rights?
[tr. Barham (1841)]

Wherefore, since the law is the bond of civil society, and the justice of the law equal, by what rule can the association of citizens be held together, if the condition of the citizens be not equal? For if the fortunes of men cannot be reduced to this equality -- if genius cannot be equally the property of all -- rights, at least, should be equal among those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a republic but an association of rights?
[tr. Yonge (1853)]

Therefore, since law is the bond which unites the civic association, and the justice enforced by law is the same for all, by what justice can an association of citizens be held together when there is no equality among the citizens? For if we cannot agree to equalize men’s wealth, and equality of innate ability is impossible, the legal rights at least of those who are citizens of the same commonwealth ought to be equal. For what is a State except an association or partnership in justice?
[tr. Keyes (1928)]

Since, then, law is the bond that holds political society together, and since equality of rights is a part of law, by what principle of right can an association of citizens be held together, when the status of these citizens is not equal? For, if it is not thought desirable that property should be equally distributed, and if the natural capacities of all men cannot possibly be equal, yet certainly all who are citizens of the same commonwealth ought to enjoy equal rights in their mutual relations. What, indeed, is a state, if it is not an association of citizens united by law?
[tr. Sabine/Smith (1929)]

Since, then, law is the bond which holds together a community of citizens, and the justice embodied in the law is the same for everyone, by what right can a community of citizens be held together when their status is unequal? If the equalization of wealth is rejected, and the equalization of everybody’s abilities is impossible, legal rights at least must be equal among those who live as fellow-citizens in the same state. For what is a state other than an equal partnership in justice?
[tr. Rudd (1998)]

And therefore, since law is the bond of civil society, and rights under law are equal, then by what right can a society of citizens be held together when the status of citizens is not the same? Even if equality of property is not appealing, and if the mental abilities of all cannot be equal, certainly the rights of all who are citizens of the same commonwealth ought to be equal. What is a state if not the association of citizens under the law?
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]

They say that Dike is the child of Cronos
and brings to light whichever of us is not wicked.
[Will (2015)]

Dike, Dike dallies, but still takes and seizes
unawares when she sees him,
any impious mortals.
[tr. Will (2015)]

But here we must observe, that there is a great deal of difference between that which justice, and that which this modesty, respect, or reverence demands, in relation to other people. It is the duty of justice, not to injure or wrong any man; of respect, or reverence, not to do anything that may offend or displease him; wherein more especially the nature of that decorum we are speaking of consists.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

But, in our estimate of human life, we are to make a difference between justice and moral susceptibility. The dictate of justice is to do no wrong; that of moral susceptibility is to give no offense to mankind, and in this the force of the graceful is most perceptible.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

But in the treatment of men there is a difference between justice and courtesy. It is the part of justice not to injure men; of courtesy, not to give them offence, and it is in this last that the influence of becomingness is most clearly seen.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

In our social relations there is a difference between justice and sympathy. Not to wrong our fellow-men is the function of justice: that of sympathy is not to wound their feelings; herein the power of decorum is most conspicuous.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

There is, too, a difference between justice and considerateness in one's relations to one's fellow-men. It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one's fellow-men; of considerateness, not to wound their feelings; and in this the essence of propriety is best seen.
[tr. Miller (1913)]

Moreover, in maintaining distinctions among men there is a degree of difference between justice and decent respect. The duty of justice is not to do violence to men. The duty of decent respect is not to insult them; this latter especially reveals the essence of decorum.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

No conduct cannot be honorable which departs from justice.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]

For nothing that is devoid of justice can be a virtue.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Nothing that is devoid of justice can be honorable.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

There can be no honour without justice.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

Right cannot be where justice is not.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]

Nothing that lacks justice can be morally right.
[tr. Miller (1913)]

Nothing can be morally worthy that lacks justice.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

Diligent care should be taken, in the next place, that the penalty be proportioned to the nature of the crime; and that some do not pass without ever being questioned, while others are punished for the same misdemeanours.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

Great care too must be taken, that the punishment be not greater than the offence; and that some should not be punished for the same offences, for which others are not called to account.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]

We ought, likewise, to take care that the punishment be proportioned to the offence, and that some be not punished for doing things for which others are not so much as called to account.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Care also must be taken lest the punishment be greater than the fault, and lest for the same cause some be made penally responsible, and others not even called to account.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Again, we should never impose a penalty disproportioned to the offence or for the same crime punish one and let another go unchallenged.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

We must take care that the punishment is not in excess of the crime, and that it is not inflicted on some only while others equally guilty are not even brought to trial.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]

One should also be careful that the punishment does not surpass the crime and that some people receive beatings while others do not even receive a reprimand.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

It is the custome of the head strong to regard neither truth in contradicting; nor profit in disputing. A wise man hath always reason on his side, and never falls into passion. He either prevents or retreats.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

'Tis the common failing of the obstinate that they lose the true by contradicting it, and the useful by quarrelling with it. The sage never places himself on the side of passion but espouses the cause of right, either discovering it first or improving it later.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

The vulgarity of these clowns, that they observe not the truth, because they lie, nor yet their own interest, because on the wrong side. A heedful man stands always on the side of reason, and never that of passion, either because he foresaw it from the first, or found it better afterwards.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]

Justice, which single virtue serves to give men the name and denomination of good, seems much the most admirable to the generality of people; and not without reason, it being impossible for any one to be just who is afraid at the approaches of death, of pain, of banishment, or poverty; or prefers those things which are contrary to these before the great duties of justice and honesty.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

Justice, from which alone good men receive their appellation, appears the most wonderful to the multitude; and with good reason: For no man can be just, who dreads death, pain, exile, want, or prefers to equity whatsoever is contrary to those.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]

Justice, from which single virtue men are called good, appears to the multitude as something marvellous. And with good reason' for no man can be just if he is afraid of death, pain, exile, or poverty, or prefers their contraries to justice.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Justice, for which one virtue men are called good, seems to the multitude a quality of marvellous excellence, — and not without good reason; for no one can be just, who dreads death, pain, exile, or poverty, or who prefers their opposites to honesty.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Justice, the possession of which entitles men to be called good, is looked upon by the masses as something miraculous; and rightly so, for no one can be just who fears death, pain, exile, or poverty, or who ranks the opposites of these above equity.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]

Justice, above all, on the basis of which alone men are called “good men,” seems to people generally a quite marvellous virtue -- and not without good reason; for no one can be just who fears death or pain or exile or poverty, or who values their opposites above equity.
[tr. Miller (1913)]

And justice in particular seems to the mass of people something amazing, and they are not wrong: good men achieve their reputation for goodness form that one virtue alone, and no man can be just who lives in fear of death, pain, exile, or poverty. If a man shuns fair-dealing in order to avoid these evils, he cannot be considered just.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

Sure, [Reason] has not many Adherents. There are many who publish her praises, but will not admit her into their Houses. Others follow her as far as danger will permit; but when they come to that, some like false Friends deny her; and the rest, like Politicians, pretend they know her not.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

What a scanty following has rectitude! Many praise it indeed, but -- for others. Others follow it till danger threatens; then the false deny it, the politic conceal it.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

Few are devoted to righteousness. Many celebrate her, but few visit her. Some follow her until things get dangerous. In danger, the false disown her and politicians cunningly disguise her.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]

Wise in his craft of art
Beyond the bounds of expectation,
The while to good he goes, the while to evil.
Honouring his country's laws and heaven's oathbound right,
High is he in the state!
But cityless is he with whom inherent baseness dwells;
When boldness dares so much,
No seat by me at festive hearth,
No seat by me in sect or party,
For him that sinneth!
[tr. Donaldson (1848)]

Passing the wildest flight thought are the cunning and skill,
That guide man now to the light, but now to counsels of ill.
If he honors the laws of the land, and reveres the Gods of the State
Proudly his city shall stand; but a cityless outcast I rate
Whoso bold in his pride from the path of right doth depart;
Ne'er may I sit by his side, or share the thoughts of his heart.
[tr. Storr (1859)]

Inventive beyond wildest hope, endowed with boundless skill,
One while he moves toward evil, and one while toward good,
According as he loves his land and fears the Gods above.
Weaving the laws into his life and steadfast oath of Heaven,
High in the State he moves but outcast he,
Who hugs dishonour to his heart and follows paths of crime
Ne'er may he come beneath my roof, nor think like thoughts with me.v [tr. Campbell (1873)]

Possessing resourceful skill, a subtlety beyond expectation he moves now to evil, now to good. When he honors the laws of the land and the justice of the gods to which he is bound by oath, his city prospers. But banned from his city is he who, thanks to his rashness, couples with disgrace. Never may he share my home, never think my thoughts, who does these things!
[tr. Jebb (1891)]

Cunning beyond fancy's dream is the fertile skill which brings him, now to evil, now to good. When he honours the laws of the land, and that justice which he hath sworn by the gods to uphold, proudly stands his city: no city hath he who, for his rashness, dwells with sin. Never may he share my hearth, never think my thoughts, who doth these things!
[tr. Jebb (1917)]

O clear intelligence, force beyond all measure!
O fate of man, working both good and evil!
When the laws are kept, how proudly his city stands!
When the laws are broken, what of his city then?
Never may the anarchic man find rest at my hearth,
Never be it said that my thoughts are his thoughts.
[tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1939), l. 285ff]

O wondrous subtlety of man, that draws
To good or evil ways! Great honor is given
And power to him who upholdeth his country’s laws
And the justice of heaven.
But he that, too rashly daring, walks in sin
In solitary pride to his life’s end.
At door of mine shall never enter in
To call me friend.
[tr. Watling (1947)]

Clever beyond all dreams
the inventive crat that he has
which may drive him one time or another to well or ill.
When he honors the laws of the land and the gods' sworn right
high indeed is his city; but stateless is the man
who dares to dwell with dishonor. Not by my fire,
never to share my thoughts, who does these things.
[tr. Wyckoff (1954)]

Surpassing belief, the device and
Cunning that Man has attained,
And it bringeth him now to evil, now to good.
If he observe Law, and tread
The righteous path God ordained,
Honored is he; dishonored, the man whose reckless heart
Shall make him join hands with sin:
May I not think like him,
Nor may such an impious man
Dwell in my house.
[tr. Kitto (1962)]

He has cunning contrivance,
Skill surpassing hope,
And so he slithers into wickedness sometimes,
Other times into doing good.
If he honors the law of the land
And the oath-bound justice of the gods,
Then his city shall stand high.
But no city for him if he turns shameless out of daring.
He will be no guest of mine,
He will never share my thoughts,
If he goes wrong.
[tr. Woodruff (2001)]

Possessing a means of invention, a skillfulness beyond expectation,
now toward evil he moves, now toward good.
By integrating the laws of the earth
and justice under oath sworn to the gods,
he is lofty of city. Citiless is the man with whom ignobility
because of his daring dwells.
May he never reside at my hearth
or think like me,
whoever does such things.
[tr. Tyrell/Bennett (2002)]

And though his wisdom is great in discovery -- wisdom beyond all imaginings!
Yet one minute it turns to ill the next again to good.
But whoever honours the laws of his land and his sworn oaths to the gods, he’ll bring glory to his city.
The arrogant man, on the other hand, the man who strays from the righteous path is lost to his city. Let that man never stay under the same roof as me or even be acquainted by me!
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]

The qualities of his inventive skills
bring arts beyond his dreams and lead him on,
sometimes to evil and sometimes to good.
If he treats his country’s laws with due respect
and honours justice by swearing on the gods,
he wins high honours in his city.
But when he grows bold and turns to evil,
then he has no city. A man like that --
let him not share my home or know my mind.
[tr. Johnston (2005), l. 415ff]

With clever creativity beyond expectation, he moves now to evil, now to good. The one who observes the laws of the land and justice, our compat with the gods, is honored in the city, but there is no city for one who participates in what is wrong for the sake of daring. Let him not share my hearth, nor let me share his ideas who had done these things.
[tr. Thomas (2005)]

But another great spring from which injuries arise, is some quirk or cavil, and an oversubtle and malicious interpretation of the laws; from whence that saying, "The height of justice is the height of roguery," is now become a daily and common proverb among us.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]




Injustice is often done by artful evasions, and from a too shrewd, but malicious interpretation of the laws. Hence the proverb, "the strictest justice is the greatest injury," has become quite familiar in conversation.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]




Very often wrongs arise through a quirk, and through a too artful but fraudulent construction of the law. Hence, "the rigour of law is the rigour of injustice," is a saying that has now passed into a proverb.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]




There are, also, wrongs committed by a sort of chicanery, which consists in a too subtle, and thus fraudulent, interpretation of the right. Hence comes the saying: The extreme of right is the extreme of wrong.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]




A common form of injustice is chicanery, that is, an over-subtle, in fact a fraudulent construction of the law. Hence the hackneyed proverb: "The greatest right is the greatest wrong."
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]




A perversion of justice, some extremely clever but harmful interpretation of a statute, also is a frequent cause of wrongdoing. Hence we have the saying, "Extreme legality is the worst law," a proverb become a cliche by daily use.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]


See Terence. ]]> https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/43876/feed/ 0 43876 https://wist.info/solon/43820/ https://wist.info/solon/43820/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2020 18:08:45 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43820 Good government makes everything well ordered and fit,
And at the same time it throws shackles on the unjust.
It levels out the rough, stops insolence, and weakens arrogance.
It causes the growing blossoms of blindness to wither.
It straightens crooked judgments and it levels out over-reaching deeds.
It stops the acts of civil conflict and
It stops the anger of grievous strife and because of it
Everything among men is wisely and appropriately done.

[Εὐνομίη δ’ εὔκοσμα καὶ ἄρτια πάντ’ ἀποφαίνει,
καὶ θαμὰ τοῖς ἀδίκοις ἀμφιτίθησι πέδας·
τραχέα λειαίνει, παύει κόρον, ὕβριν ἀμαυροῖ,
αὑαίνει δ’ ἄτης ἄνθεα φυόμενα,
εὐθύνει δὲ δίκας σκολιάς, ὑπερήφανά τ’ ἔργα
πραΰνει· παύει δ’ ἔργα διχοστασίης,
παύει δ’ ἀργαλέης ἔριδος χόλον, ἔστι δ’ ὑπ’ αὐτῆς
πάντα κατ’ ἀνθρώπους ἄρτια καὶ πινυτά.]


Solon (c. 638 BC - 558 BC) Athenian statesman, lawmaker, poet
Fragment 4.32-39 W [tr. @sententiq (2015)]
    (Source)

Solon's description of eunomiē (lawfulness). Alt. trans.:

Lawfulness, puts all things into good order and makes them sound,
And often places shackles about those who are unjust.
She smooths what is rough, puts an end to excess, enfeebles arrogance;
She withers the flowers of ruin as they spring up;
She straightens crooked judgments, and overbearing acts she turns to gentleness;
She puts an end to acts of dissension,
Puts an end to the bitterness of painful strife:
Beneath her hand all things among mankind are sound and prudent.
[tr. Miller (1996)]




Good Government displays all neatness and order,
And many times she must put shackles on the breakers of laws
She levels rough places, stops Glut and Greed, takes the force from Violence:
She dries up the growing flowers of Despair as they grow;
She straightens out crooked judgments given, gentles the swollen ambitions,
And puts an end to acts of divisional strife;
She stills the gall of wearisome Hate,
And under her influence all life among mankind is harmonious and does well.
[tr. Lattimore]

]]> https://wist.info/solon/43820/feed/ 0 43820 https://wist.info/gandhi-mahatma/43817/ https://wist.info/gandhi-mahatma/43817/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:31:15 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43817 Truth never damages a cause that is just.




Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Non-Violence in Peace and War, Vol. 2 (1949)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/gandhi-mahatma/43817/feed/ 0 43817 https://wist.info/dostoyevsky-fyodor/43493/ https://wist.info/dostoyevsky-fyodor/43493/#respond Fri, 02 Oct 2020 01:13:33 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43493 A just cause is not ruined by a few mistakes.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist
“Critical Articles: Introduction,” Complete Collected Works (1895) ]]> https://wist.info/dostoyevsky-fyodor/43493/feed/ 0 43493 https://wist.info/catt-carrie-chapman/43298/ https://wist.info/catt-carrie-chapman/43298/#respond Thu, 17 Sep 2020 19:14:07 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43298 When a just cause reaches its flood-tide … whatever stands in the way must fall before its overwhelming power.

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) American women's suffrage activist
“Is Woman Suffrage Progressing?” speech, Sixth Convention of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, Stockholm (13 Jun 1911)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/catt-carrie-chapman/43298/feed/ 0 43298 https://wist.info/mcfee-william/43062/ https://wist.info/mcfee-william/43062/#respond Tue, 01 Sep 2020 15:09:16 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43062 People don’t ever seem to realize that doing what’s right’s no guarantee against misfortune.

William McFee (1881-1966) English writer
Casuals of the Sea, Book 2, ch 6 (1916)
    (Source)

Sometimes paraphrased "Doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune." ]]> https://wist.info/mcfee-william/43062/feed/ 0 43062 https://wist.info/white-ken/42741/ https://wist.info/white-ken/42741/#respond Wed, 29 Jul 2020 22:28:13 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42741 Despite what Hollywood would lead you to believe, we criminal defense attorneys do not advocate lenient sentences for all wrongdoers as a matter of policy. […] Our role is to stand beside our clients, no matter who they are or what they did, and be their advocates, the one person required to plead their case and argue their interests. This is the closest our society comes to grace or humility. It’s grace because we give this support to defendants whether they deserve it by any objective measure, and it’s humility because we know the system is so capable of grave error in accusing and punishing.

Ken White (b. c. 1969) American constitutional and criminal attorney, prosecutor, blogger
“Fault Lines” blog, Mimeslaw.com (8 Jun 2016)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/white-ken/42741/feed/ 0 42741 https://wist.info/kennedy-robert/42721/ https://wist.info/kennedy-robert/42721/#respond Tue, 28 Jul 2020 16:10:03 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42721 What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Indianapolis (1968-04-04)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/kennedy-robert/42721/feed/ 0 42721 https://wist.info/macdonell-john/42146/ https://wist.info/macdonell-john/42146/#respond Mon, 15 Jun 2020 23:53:57 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42146 There is no accepted test of civilization. It is not wealth, or the degree of comfort, or the average duration of life, or the increase of knowledge. All such tests would be disputed. In default of any other measure, may it not be suggested that as good a measure as any is the degree to which justice is carried out, the degree to which men are sensitive as to wrong-doing and desirous to right it? If that be the test, a trial such as that of Servetus is a trial of the people among whom it takes place, and his condemnation is theirs also.

John Macdonell (1846-1921) British jurist
Historical Trials, ch. 7 (1927)
    (Source)

John Calvin ordered Michael Servetus be imprisoned for heresy in Geneva; he was tried, then burned at the stake in 1553. ]]> https://wist.info/macdonell-john/42146/feed/ 0 42146 https://wist.info/ariosto-ludovico/41546/ https://wist.info/ariosto-ludovico/41546/#respond Mon, 04 May 2020 16:59:07 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41546 Ill doers in the end shall ill receive.

[Chi mal opra, male al fine aspetta.]




Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) Italian poet
Orlando Furioso, Canto 37, st. 106, l. 6 (1532) [tr. Rose (1831)]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ariosto-ludovico/41546/feed/ 0 41546 https://wist.info/solon/41455/ https://wist.info/solon/41455/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2020 22:27:05 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41455 That city [is best to live in,] in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.

Solon (c. 638 BC - 558 BC) Athenian statesman, lawmaker, poet
Quoted in Plutarch, Parallel Lives, “The Life of Solon,” sec. 18.5 [tr. Perrin (1914)]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.:
• "That [city is best managed] in which those who are not wronged espouse the cause of those who are, and punish their oppressors." [tr. Stewart, Long (1894)]
• "That [city is best modeled] where those that are not injured try and punish the unjust as much as those that are." [Source]
• "That [city is best modeled] where those who are not injured, are as ready to prosecute and punish offenders, as those who are." [tr. Langhorne, Langhorne (1819)]
• "The city [is best governed of all] where those who have not been wronged show themselves just as ready to punish the offender as thouse who have been." [tr. Scott-Kilvert (1960)]
• Paraphrased as "Justice can be secured in Athens if those who are not injured feel as indignant as those who are," in Earl Warren, "The Law and the Future," Fortune (Nov 1955).
]]> https://wist.info/solon/41455/feed/ 1 41455 https://wist.info/jay-john/41447/ https://wist.info/jay-john/41447/#respond Tue, 21 Apr 2020 23:15:03 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41447 Justice is indiscriminately due to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.




John Jay (1745-1829) American statesman, diplomat, abolitionist, politician, Chief Justice (1789-1795)
Georgia v. Brailsford, 3 US 1 (1794) [unanimous opinion]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jay-john/41447/feed/ 0 41447 https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/41155/ https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/41155/#respond Tue, 24 Mar 2020 16:16:00 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41155 Against all appearances the nature of things works for truth and right forever.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6
    (Source)

Based on a course of lectures, "The Conduct of Life," delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03). ]]> https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/41155/feed/ 0 41155 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/40789/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/40789/#respond Mon, 24 Feb 2020 22:24:16 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40789 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. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“The Birth of a New Age,” speech, Alpha Phi Alpha banquet, Buffalo (11 Aug 1956)
    (Source)

King used the same phrases, or variations of them, for different speeches and sermons, e.g., in "Desegregation and the Future" (15 Dec 1956), he used "Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity." ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/40789/feed/ 0 40789 https://wist.info/bible-ot/40574/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/40574/#respond Mon, 10 Feb 2020 18:12:26 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40574 How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 19. Psalms 18: 2ff (Ps 18:2-4) [NRSV (2021 ed.)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
[KJV (1611)]




No more mockery of justice,
no more favouring the wicked! Pause
Let the weak and the orphan have justice,
be fair to the wretched and destitute;
rescue the weak and needy,
save them from the clutches of the wicked!
[JB (1966)]




You must stop judging unjustly;
you must no longer be partial to the wicked!
Defend the rights of the poor and the orphans;
be fair to the needy and the helpless.
Rescue them from the power of evil people.
[GNT (1976)]




How much longer will you give unjust judgements and uphold the prestige of the wicked? Pause
Let the weak and the orphan have justice, be fair to the wretched and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy, save them from the clutches of the wicked.
[NJB (1985)]




How long will you judge unjustly
by granting favor to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the lowly and the orphan;
maintain the right of the poor and the destitute!
Rescue the lowly and the needy.
Deliver them from the power of the wicked!
[CEB (2011)]




How long will you judge perversely,
showing favor to the wicked? Selah.
Judge the wretched and the orphan,
vindicate the lowly and the poor,
rescue the wretched and the needy;
save them from the hand of the wicked.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/40574/feed/ 0 40574 https://wist.info/demosthenes/40550/ https://wist.info/demosthenes/40550/#respond Fri, 07 Feb 2020 23:21:19 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40550 For your reputation, for your religion, for your safety, for every advantage you have, do not acquit this man — no, exact vengeance upon him to make him an example to everyone, to our citizens and to the rest of the world.

[οὔτε γὰρ πρὸς δόξαν οὔτε πρὸς εὐσέβειαν οὔτε πρὸς ἀσφάλειαν οὔτε πρὸς ἄλλ᾿ οὐδὲν ὑμῖν συμφέρει τοῦτον ἀφεῖναι, ἀλλὰ τιμωρησαμένους παράδειγμα ποιῆσαι πᾶσι, καὶ τοῖς πολίταις καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις Ἕλλησιν.]


Demosthenes (384-322 BC) Greek orator and statesman
Oration 19, “On the False Embassy,” sec. 343 (Conclusion)
    (Source)

Also known as "On the False Legation". Alt. trans.: "For the sake of your honor, of your religion, of your security, of everything you value, you must not acquit this man. Visit him with exemplary punishment, and let his fate be a warning not to our own citizens alone but to every man who lives in the Hellenic world." [tr. Vince, Vince (1926)] ]]> https://wist.info/demosthenes/40550/feed/ 0 40550 https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/39790/ https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/39790/#respond Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:08:38 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39790 Things seem to tend downward, to justify despondency, to promote rogues, to defeat the just; and by knaves as well as by martyrs the just cause is carried forward. Although knaves win in every political struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of criminals into the hands of another set of criminals, as fast as the government is changed, and the march of civilization is a train of felonies, yet, general ends are somehow answered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Montaigne; or, The Skeptic,” Representative Men, Lecture 4 (1850)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/39790/feed/ 0 39790 https://wist.info/bible-ot/39465/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/39465/#respond Mon, 27 May 2019 18:54:36 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39465 Yahweh says this: Practice honesty and integrity; rescue the man who has been wronged from the hands of his oppressor; do not exploit the stranger, the orphan, the widow; do no violence; shed no innocent blood in this place.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 24. Jeremiah 22: 3 (Jer 22:3) [tr. JB (1966)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
[KJV (1611)]




I, the Lord, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not mistreat or oppress aliens, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place.
[GNT (1976)]




Yahweh says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who has been wronged, do not exploit or ill-treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in this place.
[NJB (1985)]




Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]




Thus said GOD: Do what is just and right; rescue from the defrauder anyone who is robbed; do not wrong the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; commit no lawless act, and do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/39465/feed/ 0 39465 https://wist.info/bible-ot/39412/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/39412/#respond Wed, 24 Apr 2019 02:09:07 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39412 Speak out on behalf of the voiceless,
and for the rights of all who are vulnerable.
Speak out in order to judge with righteousness
and to defend the needy and the poor.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 20. Proverbs 31: 8ff (Prov 31:8-9) [tr. CEB (2011)]
    (Source)

From the sayings of King Lemuel of Massa, given by his mother. Alternate translations:



Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
[KJV (1611)]




Speak, yourself, on behalf of the dumb, on behalf of all the unwanted; speak, yourself, pronounce a just verdict, uphold the rights of the poor, of the needy.
[JB (1966)]




Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless. Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy.
[GNT (1976)]




Make your views heard, on behalf of the dumb, on behalf of all the unwanted; make your views heard, pronounce an upright verdict, defend the cause of the poor and the wretched.
[NJB (1985)]




Speak out for those who cannot speak,
for the rights of all the destitute.
Speak out; judge righteously;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]




Speak up for the dumb,
For the rights of all the unfortunate.
Speak up, judge righteously,
Champion the poor and the needy.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/39412/feed/ 0 39412 https://wist.info/wilde-oscar/39284/ https://wist.info/wilde-oscar/39284/#respond Fri, 01 Mar 2019 02:26:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=39284 The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.




Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Importance of Being Earnest, act 2 (Miss Prism) [1895]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/wilde-oscar/39284/feed/ 0 39284 https://wist.info/brown-rita-mae/38370/ https://wist.info/brown-rita-mae/38370/#respond Mon, 08 Jan 2018 23:01:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38370 I have changed my definition of tragedy. I now think tragedy is not foul deeds done to a person (usually noble in some manner) but rather that tragedy is irresolvable conflict. Both sides/ideas are right.

Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944) American author, playwright
Starting from Scratch, Part 3 “The Work,” “Plot” (1989)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/brown-rita-mae/38370/feed/ 0 38370 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/38274/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/38274/#respond Fri, 17 Nov 2017 18:42:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38274 Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness — justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/38274/feed/ 0 38274 https://wist.info/philemon/37986/ https://wist.info/philemon/37986/#respond Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:52:29 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37986 A just man is not one who does no ill,
But he, who with the power, has not the will.

Philemon (c. 362 BC – c. 262 BC) Athenian poet and playwright
Sententiæ, II

Attributed in John Booth, Epigrams, Ancient and Modern (1863). . ]]> https://wist.info/philemon/37986/feed/ 0 37986 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37884/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37884/#respond Sat, 02 Sep 2017 19:00:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37884 Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 11 “Where Do We Go from Here?” (1958)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37884/feed/ 0 37884 https://wist.info/other/37430/ https://wist.info/other/37430/#respond Fri, 07 Jul 2017 23:41:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37430 To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.

[Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differimus rectum aut justiciam.]




(Other Authors and Sources)
Magna Carta, Clause 40 (1215)

Alt. trans.:
• "To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice."
• "To none will we sell, to none will we deny, to none will we delay right or justice."
]]> https://wist.info/other/37430/feed/ 0 37430 https://wist.info/stross-charles/37043/ https://wist.info/stross-charles/37043/#respond Wed, 24 May 2017 00:03:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37043 KARMA’S A BITCH. No, let me rephrase that: Karma is your vengeful bunny-boiler ex, lurking in your darkened front hallway wearing an ice-hockey mask and carrying a baseball bat inscribed with BET YOU DIDN’T SEE THIS COMING.

Charles "Charlie" Stross (b. 1964) British writer
The Rhesus Chart (2014) ]]> https://wist.info/stross-charles/37043/feed/ 0 37043 https://wist.info/other/36834/ https://wist.info/other/36834/#respond Fri, 21 Apr 2017 22:11:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36834 No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, no will we send against him except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Magna Carta, Clause 39 (1215) ]]> https://wist.info/other/36834/feed/ 0 36834 https://wist.info/lee-harper/36655/ https://wist.info/lee-harper/36655/#respond Fri, 31 Mar 2017 21:56:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36655 I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system — that is an ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.

Harper Lee (1926-2016) American writer [Nellie Harper Lee]
To Kill a Mockingbird, ch. 20 (1960) ]]> https://wist.info/lee-harper/36655/feed/ 0 36655 https://wist.info/lee-harper/36230/ https://wist.info/lee-harper/36230/#respond Wed, 08 Feb 2017 18:54:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36230 But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal — there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be in the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.

Harper Lee (1926-2016) American writer [Nellie Harper Lee]
To Kill a Mockingbird, ch. 20 (1960) ]]> https://wist.info/lee-harper/36230/feed/ 0 36230 https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/ https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/#respond Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:33:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35954 The splendor of the goal of the French Revolution is simultaneously the source of our strength and of our weakness: our strength, because it gives us an ascendancy of truth over falsehood, and of public rights over private interests; our weakness, because it rallies against us all vicious men, all those who in their hearts seek to despoil the people . … It is necessary to stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic or perish with them. Now in these circumstances, the first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror. If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue.

Maximilien Robespierre (1758-174) French lawyer, politician, revolutionary leader
Speech, National Convention (7 May 1794)
    (Source)

In a parallel thought, he wrote in On the Principles of Political Morality (1794):

If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace, the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country. ]]> https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/feed/ 0 35954 https://wist.info/adams-john/35602/ https://wist.info/adams-john/35602/#respond Tue, 15 Nov 2016 05:16:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35602 The law, in all vicissitudes of government, fluctuations of the passions, or flights of enthusiasm, will preserve a steady undeviating course; it will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations, and wanton tempers of men. […] On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Speech (1770-12-04), “Argument in Defence of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials”
    (Source)

At the ellipses, Adams included Algernon Sidney's comments on the steady, dispassionate strength of the law. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/35602/feed/ 0 35602 https://wist.info/aeschylus/35547/ https://wist.info/aeschylus/35547/#respond Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:10:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35547 And from your policy do not wholly banish fear,
For what man living, freed from fear, will still be just?




Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
The Eumenides ]]> https://wist.info/aeschylus/35547/feed/ 0 35547 https://wist.info/jones-mother/35494/ https://wist.info/jones-mother/35494/#respond Sat, 29 Oct 2016 04:53:43 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35494 I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.




Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1860-1930) American labor leader [a.k.a. Mother Jones]
Speech (1903), in The Autobiography of Mother Jones, ch. 10 (1925) ]]> https://wist.info/jones-mother/35494/feed/ 0 35494 https://wist.info/adams-john-quincy/35337/ https://wist.info/adams-john-quincy/35337/#respond Tue, 11 Oct 2016 03:05:21 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35337 We know the redemption must come. The time and the manner of its coming we know not: It may come in peace, or it may come in blood; but whether in peace or in blood, LET IT COME.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Speech to “The colored people of Pittsburge, Pennsylvania” (1843)

Representative Dellet of Alabama quoted the speech before the House of Representatives, then asked Adams, "though it cost the blood of thousands of white men?" Adams responded, "Though it cost the blood of millions of white men, let it come. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall." ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john-quincy/35337/feed/ 0 35337 https://wist.info/scalzi-john/35077/ https://wist.info/scalzi-john/35077/#respond Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:31:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35077 “It’s not fair,” Cloud said eventually. “It’s not fair you have to mourn this child.”

Jared gave a small laugh. “We’re in the wrong universe for fair,” he said, simply.


John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
The Ghost Brigades (2006) ]]> https://wist.info/scalzi-john/35077/feed/ 0 35077 https://wist.info/gervais-ricky/35027/ https://wist.info/gervais-ricky/35027/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 00:21:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35027 Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right.

Ricky Gervais (b. 1961) English comedian, actor, director, writer
Tweet (12 Oct 2013)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/gervais-ricky/35027/feed/ 0 35027 https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/34480/ https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/34480/#respond Wed, 13 Jul 2016 15:39:06 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34480 One hundred and eighty-eight years ago this week a small band of valiant men began a long struggle for freedom. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor not only to found a nation, but to forge an ideal of freedom — not only for political independence, but for personal liberty — not only to eliminate foreign rule, but to establish the rule of justice in the affairs of men. That struggle was a turning point in our history. Today in far corners of distant continents, the ideals of those American patriots still shape the struggles of men who hunger for freedom. This is a proud triumph. Yet those who founded our country knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-07-02), Signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Washington, D.C.
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/34480/feed/ 0 34480 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/34402/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/34402/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2016 17:49:43 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34402 In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.


Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech (1963-08-28), “I Have a Dream,” Washington, D. C.
    (Source)

See Jefferson. ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/34402/feed/ 0 34402 https://wist.info/garfield-james-a/34145/ https://wist.info/garfield-james-a/34145/#respond Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:08:47 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34145 Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
Letter of Acceptance, Republican nomination for President (10 Jul 1880)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/garfield-james-a/34145/feed/ 0 34145 https://wist.info/plautus/33914/ https://wist.info/plautus/33914/#respond Tue, 24 May 2016 13:50:07 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=33914 The men who convey, and those who listen to calumnies, should, if I could have my way, all hang, the tale-bearers by their tongues, the listeners by their ears.

Plautus (c. 254-184 BC) Roman playright [Titus Maccius Plautus]
Pseudolus, 1.5 ]]> https://wist.info/plautus/33914/feed/ 0 33914 https://wist.info/santayana-george/33304/ https://wist.info/santayana-george/33304/#respond Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:58:26 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=33304 It would repel me less to be a hangman than a soldier, because the one is obliged to put to death only criminals sentenced by the law, but the other kills honest men who like himself bathe in innocent blood at the bidding of some superior.

George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
Persons and Places, entry, c. 1880 (1944) ]]> https://wist.info/santayana-george/33304/feed/ 0 33304 https://wist.info/harris-sydney-j/33227/ https://wist.info/harris-sydney-j/33227/#respond Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:06:25 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=33227 To execute a murderer is simply to adopt his point of view.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
Pieces of Eight (1982) ]]> https://wist.info/harris-sydney-j/33227/feed/ 0 33227 https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32315/ https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32315/#respond Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:58:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32315 The peace we seek and need means much more than mere absence of war. It means the acceptance of law, and the fostering of justice, in all the world.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
“Developments in Eastern Europe and the Middle East,” Broadcast Speech (31 Oct 1956) ]]> https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32315/feed/ 0 32315 https://wist.info/mohammed/31929/ https://wist.info/mohammed/31929/#respond Mon, 21 Dec 2015 20:06:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31929 If Allah took mankind to task by that which they deserve, He would not leave a living creature on the surface of the earth.

Muhammad (AD c. 570-632) Arab religious, military, and political leader; founder of Islam [Mohammed, مُحَمَّد]
Qur’an, 35.45 (AD 670?) [tr. Pickthall (1953)] ]]> https://wist.info/mohammed/31929/feed/ 0 31929 https://wist.info/euripides/31850/ https://wist.info/euripides/31850/#respond Tue, 15 Dec 2015 15:10:55 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31850 AGAMEMNON:For it touches all,
Cities and men alike, that deeds of ill
Find evil ends, and virtue prosper still.

[ἈΓΑΜΈΜΝΩΝ:πᾶσι γὰρ κοινὸν τόδε,
ἰδίᾳ θ᾽ ἑκάστῳ καὶ πόλει, τὸν μὲν κακὸν
κακόν τι πάσχειν, τὸν δὲ χρηστὸν εὐτυχεῖν.]


Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 900ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. Sheppard (1924)]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:



For 'tis the common interest of mankind.
Of every individual, every state.
That he who hath transgress'd should suffer ill.
And Fortune crown the efforts of the virtuous.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]




For this is a general principle among all, both individuals in private and states,
That the wicked man should feel vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]




For the general good
Of individuals and of states requires
That vengeance overtake th’ unrighteous deed,
And virtue triumph in her just reward.
[ed. Ramage (1864)]




For all men's weal is this, --
Each several man's, and for the state, -- that ill
Betide the bad, prosperity the good.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]




For this is the interest alike of citizen and state, that the wrong-doer be punished and the good man prosper.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]




The common interests
of states and individuals alike demand
that good and evil receive their just rewards.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]




Every man -- every slave -- shares one wish. May we each get what we deserve.
[tr. McGuinness (2004)]




I think the wish is common among men, as individuals and citizens, that bad men should suffer and good men thrive.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]




It is everyone’s conviction, individually and collectively as a city, that the evil man suffers and the good man rejoices.
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]




It’s in the interests of both
states and individuals that evil suffers evil
and good fares well.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]


]]> https://wist.info/euripides/31850/feed/ 0 31850 https://wist.info/peoples-david-w/31833/ https://wist.info/peoples-david-w/31833/#respond Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:23:47 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31833 (Source (Video); dialog verified) Will Munny was played by Clint Eastwood. The script was originally […]]]> MUNNY: It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.

SCHOFIELD KID: Yeah. Well, I guess they had it coming.

MUNNY: We all have it coming, kid.

!–more–>

(Source (Video); dialog verified)

Will Munny was played by Clint Eastwood. The script was originally written in 1976.


David Peoples (b. 1940) American screenwriter
Unforgiven (1992)
    (Source)

(Source (Video); dialog verified)

Will Munny was played by Clint Eastwood. The script was originally written in 1976. ]]> https://wist.info/peoples-david-w/31833/feed/ 0 31833 https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/31558/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/31558/#respond Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:32:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31558 HAMLET: Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?




William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 555ff (2.2.555) (c. 1600)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/31558/feed/ 0 31558 https://wist.info/butcher-jim/31560/ https://wist.info/butcher-jim/31560/#respond Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:32:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31560 The dead don’t need justice. That’s for those of us who are left looking down at the remains.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Skin Game (2014) ]]> https://wist.info/butcher-jim/31560/feed/ 0 31560 https://wist.info/justinian-i/30966/ https://wist.info/justinian-i/30966/#respond Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:27:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30966 The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone his due.

Justinian I (c. 482-565) Byzantine emperor [Justinian the Great]
Code of Justinian (533) ]]> https://wist.info/justinian-i/30966/feed/ 0 30966 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30809/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30809/#respond Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:32:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30809 You must remember that some things that are legally right are not morally right.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

Remark to potential client (1840s?), refusing his case involving a $600 claim against a widow with six children. In F. Brown, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2.6 (1887). ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30809/feed/ 0 30809 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30733/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30733/#respond Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:17:54 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30733 No law is stronger than is the public sentiment where it is to be enforced.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1859-12-22) to John J. Crittenden
    (Source)

Crittenden was a US Senator from Kentucky, a former Whig but at the time part of the American (Know-Nothing) Party. Lincoln was criticizing the idea of a party platform with the sole position of "The Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws," and used the resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act in the North as an example.

See Lincoln (1858). ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30733/feed/ 0 30733 https://wist.info/jackson-andrew/30631/ https://wist.info/jackson-andrew/30631/#respond Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:17:52 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30631 The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Letter to John Quincy Adams (26 Aug 1821) ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-andrew/30631/feed/ 0 30631 https://wist.info/lebon-gustave/30602/ https://wist.info/lebon-gustave/30602/#respond Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:08:17 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30602 Law and Justice play no role in the relations of peoples of unequal strength.

Gustave LeBon (1841-1931) German psychologist
Aphorisms of Present Times, 2.6 (1913) ]]> https://wist.info/lebon-gustave/30602/feed/ 0 30602 https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/30290/ https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/30290/#respond Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:15:47 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30290 Unkindness has no Remedy at Law.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 5402 (1732)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/30290/feed/ 0 30290 https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/30207/ https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/30207/#respond Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:04:29 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30207 Honest Men often go to Law for their Right; when Wise Men would sit down with the Wrong, supposing the first Loss least. In some Countries the Course of the Courts is so tedious, and the Expence so high, that the Remedy, Justice, is worse than, Injustice, the Disease. In my Travels I once saw a Sign call’d The Two Men at Law; One of them was painted on one Side, in a melancholy Posture, all in Rags, with this Scroll, I have lost my Cause. The other was drawn capering for Joy, on the other Side, with these Words, I have gain’d my Suit; but he was stark naked.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1742 ed.)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/30207/feed/ 0 30207 https://wist.info/taft-william/30099/ https://wist.info/taft-william/30099/#respond Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:00:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30099 Delay works always for the man with the longest purse.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (1909-13) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)
“Adequate Machinery for Judicial Business,” Journal of the American Bar Association (Sep 1921) ]]> https://wist.info/taft-william/30099/feed/ 0 30099 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30009/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30009/#respond Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:05:34 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30009 Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1863-08-26) to James C. Conkling
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30009/feed/ 0 30009 https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/29251/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/29251/#respond Wed, 06 May 2015 12:06:18 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29251 Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1947-10-15), “My Day”
    (Source)

On the US, hoping that "a just and workable plan would be evolved," officially declaring support on 11 October for the United Nations plan to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/29251/feed/ 0 29251 https://wist.info/harris-sydney-j/28839/ https://wist.info/harris-sydney-j/28839/#respond Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:10:02 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28839 One of the oldest Russian proverbs remains as inexorably true in modern America: “No one is hanged who has money in his pocket.” Or, one might say, capital punishment is only for those without capital.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
Syndicated column, Chicago Daily News (Apr 1971) ]]> https://wist.info/harris-sydney-j/28839/feed/ 0 28839 https://wist.info/publilius-syrus/28629/ https://wist.info/publilius-syrus/28629/#respond Tue, 17 Mar 2015 12:59:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28629 To spare the guilty is to injure the innocent.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 113 [tr. Lyman (1862)] ]]> https://wist.info/publilius-syrus/28629/feed/ 0 28629 https://wist.info/halifax-savile-george/28477/ https://wist.info/halifax-savile-george/28477/#respond Tue, 03 Mar 2015 14:01:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28477 Wherever a Knave is not punished, an honest Man is laugh’d at.

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“Of Punishment,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/halifax-savile-george/28477/feed/ 0 28477 https://wist.info/whedon-joss/28368/ https://wist.info/whedon-joss/28368/#respond Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:47:04 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28368 ZOE: I know something ain’t right.

WASH: Sweetie, we’re crooks. If everything were right, we’d be in jail.


Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Firefly, 1×01 “Serenity” (pilot) (20 Dec 2002) ]]> https://wist.info/whedon-joss/28368/feed/ 0 28368 https://wist.info/defoe-daniel/28341/ https://wist.info/defoe-daniel/28341/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:44:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28341 I hear much of People’s calling out to punish the Guilty, but very few are concern’d to clear the Innocent.

Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731) English journalist and novelist
An Appeal to Honour and Justice, Tho’ it be of His Worse Enemies (1715) ]]> https://wist.info/defoe-daniel/28341/feed/ 0 28341 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/28338/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/28338/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:27:20 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28338 My hope of preserving peace for our country is not founded in the quaker principle of non resistance under every wrong, but in the belief that a just and friendly conduct on our part will procure justice and friendship from others, and that, in the existing contest, each of the combatants will find an interest in our friendship.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1803-07-10) to the Earl of Buchan
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/28338/feed/ 0 28338 https://wist.info/hughes-langston/27765/ https://wist.info/hughes-langston/27765/#respond Tue, 16 Dec 2014 13:21:07 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27765 That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise:
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright
“Justice” (1923) ]]> https://wist.info/hughes-langston/27765/feed/ 0 27765 https://wist.info/camus-albert/27688/ https://wist.info/camus-albert/27688/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2014 13:04:59 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27688 The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
The Rebel (1951) ]]> https://wist.info/camus-albert/27688/feed/ 0 27688 https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/27583/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/27583/#respond Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:37:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27583 All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, no matter in what way we may severally worship our Creator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice. We must stand for a reign of equal justice to both big and small.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1915-10-12), “Americanism,” Knights of Columbus, Carnegie Hall, New York City
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/27583/feed/ 0 27583 https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27447/ https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27447/#respond Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:34:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27447 Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right. … This is commonly true even where the error is a matter of serious concern, provided correction can be had by legislation. But in cases involving the Federal Constitution, where correction through legislative action is practically impossible, this court has often overruled its earlier decisions. The court bows to the lessons of experience and the force of better reasoning, recognizing that the process of trial and error, so fruitful in the physical sciences, is appropriate also in the judicial function.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393 (1932) [dissent] ]]> https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27447/feed/ 0 27447 https://wist.info/burgh-james/27278/ https://wist.info/burgh-james/27278/#respond Thu, 23 Oct 2014 12:44:19 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27278 If there be, in any region of the universe, an order of moral agents living in society, whose reason is strong, whose passions and inclinations are moderate, and whose dispositions are turned to virtue, to such an order of happy beings, legislation, administration, and police, with the endlessly various and complicated apparatus of politics, must be in a great measure superfluous.

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly,” ch. 1 “Government by Laws and Sanctions, why necessary” (1774)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/burgh-james/27278/feed/ 0 27278 https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27109/ https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27109/#respond Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:12:14 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27109 What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty, and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
“True Americanism,” speech, Faneuil Hall, Boston (1915-07-05)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27109/feed/ 0 27109 https://wist.info/camus-albert/26953/ https://wist.info/camus-albert/26953/#respond Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:34:22 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26953 Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. To be fruitful, the two ideas must find their limits in each other.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Historical Murder,” The Rebel (1951) [tr. Bower] ]]> https://wist.info/camus-albert/26953/feed/ 0 26953 https://wist.info/stout-rex/24402/ https://wist.info/stout-rex/24402/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2014 12:32:58 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=24402 Nothing is simpler than to kill a man; the difficulties arise in attempting to avoid the consequences.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Too Many Cooks, ch. 3 [Wolfe] (1938) ]]> https://wist.info/stout-rex/24402/feed/ 0 24402 https://wist.info/tavris-carol/24367/ https://wist.info/tavris-carol/24367/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:44:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=24367 Rebels and dissidents challenge the complacent belief in a just world, and, as the theory would predict, they are usually denigrated for their efforts. While they are alive, they may be called “cantankerous,” “crazy,” “hysterical,” “uppity,” or “duped.” Dead, some of them become saints and heroes, the sterling characters of history. It’s a matter of proportion. One angry rebel is crazy, three is a conspiracy, fifty is a movement.

Carol Tavris (b. 1944) American social psychologist and author
“Anger in an Unjust World,” Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion (1982) ]]> https://wist.info/tavris-carol/24367/feed/ 0 24367 https://wist.info/leonardo-da-vinci/23409/ https://wist.info/leonardo-da-vinci/23409/#respond Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:34:43 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23409 He who does not punish evil commends it to be done.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian artist, engineer, scientist, polymath
Note-books (1508-1518)
    (Source)

In some versions, this is translated as "commands it to be done." ]]> https://wist.info/leonardo-da-vinci/23409/feed/ 0 23409 https://wist.info/stout-rex/23361/ https://wist.info/stout-rex/23361/#respond Thu, 02 Jan 2014 20:25:45 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23361 I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn’t have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you’re guilty you’ll get it in the neck and if you’re innocent you can’t possibly be harmed. No matter who you are. There was no such conception of justice until after 1830. There was no such thing as a policeman or a detective in the world before 1830, because the modern conception of the policeman and detective, namely, a man whose only function is to find out who did it and then get the evidence that will punish him, did not exist. … In Paris before the year 1800 — read the Dumas stories — there were gangs of people whose business was to go out and punish wrongdoers. But why? Because they had hurt De Marillac or Richelieu or the Duke or some Huguenot noble, not just because they had harmed society. It is only the modern policeman that is out to protect society.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
On “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” Invitation to Learning Radio Show, hosted by Mark Van Doren (Jan 1942)

Transcribed in Mark Van Doren, The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times (1942). ]]> https://wist.info/stout-rex/23361/feed/ 0 23361 https://wist.info/bible-ot/21541/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/21541/#respond Fri, 28 Jun 2013 13:03:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21541 Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 24. Jeremiah 9:23ff (Jer 9:23-24) [tr. NRSV (1989 ed.)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
[KJV (1611)]




Let the sage boast no more of his wisdom, nor the valiant of his valour, nor the rich man of his riches! But if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, I rule with kindness, justice and integrity on earth; yes, these are what please me -- it is Yahweh who speaks.
[JB (1966), 9:22-23]




The wise should not boast of their wisdom,
nor the strong of their strength,
nor the rich of their wealth.
If any want to boast,
they should boast that they know and understand me,
because my love is constant,
and I do what is just and right.
These are the things that please me.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
[GNT (1976)]




"Let the sage not boast of wisdom, nor the valiant of valour, nor the wealthy of riches! But let anyone who wants to boast, boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, who acts with faithful love, justice, and uprightness on earth; yes, these are what please me," Yahweh declares.
[NJB (1985), 9:22-23]




Let not the wise glory in their wisdom;
Let not the strong glory in their strength;
Let not the rich glory in their riches.
But only in this should one glory:
In being earnestly devoted to Me.
For I GOD act with kindness,
Justice, and equity in the world;
For in these I delight
-- declares GOD.
[RJPS (2023 ed.), 9:22-23]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/21541/feed/ 0 21541 https://wist.info/bible-ot/21369/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/21369/#respond Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:33:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21369 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 30. Amos 5:21ff (Amos 5:21-24) [tr. NRSV (1989 ed.)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
[KJV (1611)]




I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals. When you offer me holocausts, I reject your oblations, and refuse to look at your sacrifices of fattened cattle. Let me have no more of the din of your chanting, no more of your strumming on harps. But let justice flow like water, and integrity like an unfailing stream.
[JB (1966)]




The Lord says, “I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them! When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings. Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry."
[GNT (1976)]




I loathe, I spurn your festivals,
I am not appeased by your solemn assemblies.
If you offer Me burnt offerings -- or your grain offerings --
I will not accept them;
I will pay no heed
To your gifts of fatlings.
Spare Me the sound of your hymns,
And let Me not hear the music of your lutes.
But let justice well up like water,
Righteousness like an unfailing stream.
[RJPS (2006)]




I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
[NIV (2011 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/21369/feed/ 0 21369 https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/21282/ https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/21282/#respond Wed, 29 May 2013 11:33:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21282 The central fact of American civilization — one so hard for others to understand — is that freedom and justice and the dignity of man are not just words to us. We believe in them. Under all the growth and the tumult and abundance, we believe. And so, as long as some among us are oppressed — and we are part of that oppression — it must blunt our faith and sap the strength of our high purpose.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-08-06), Signing of the Voting Rights Act, Washington, D.C.
    (Source)

(Source (Video)) ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/21282/feed/ 0 21282 https://wist.info/seneca-the-younger/20613/ https://wist.info/seneca-the-younger/20613/#respond Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:11:47 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20613 There are none more abusive to others than they that lie most open to it themselves; but the humor goes round, and he that laughs at me today will have somebody to laugh at him tomorrow.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On Anger [De ira]“ ]]> https://wist.info/seneca-the-younger/20613/feed/ 0 20613 https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/19869/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/19869/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:13:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19869 HENRY: What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry VI, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 240ff (3.2.240-243) (1591)
    (Source)

See Ward. ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/19869/feed/ 2 19869 https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/19696/ https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/19696/#respond Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:41:18 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19696 On the one hand, security and justice require centralized governmental control, which must extend to the creation of a world government if it is to be effective. Progress, on the contrary, requires the utmost scope for personal initiative that is compatible with social order.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-30), “Individual and Social Ethics,” Reith Lecture, No. 6, BBC Radio
    (Source)

As collected, with edits, in Authority and the Individual (1949). ]]> https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/19696/feed/ 0 19696 https://wist.info/bolt-robert/19644/ https://wist.info/bolt-robert/19644/#respond Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:43:14 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19644 MORE: You threaten like a dockside bully.

CROMWELL: How should I threaten?

MORE: Like a Minister of State, with justice!

CROMWELL: Oh, justice is what you’re threatened with.

MORE: Then I’m not threatened.


Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
    (Source)

Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same language. ]]> https://wist.info/bolt-robert/19644/feed/ 0 19644 https://wist.info/black-hugo/19132/ https://wist.info/black-hugo/19132/#respond Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:32:19 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19132 Bad men, like good men, are entitled to be tried and sentenced in accordance with law, and when it is shown to us that a person is serving an illegal sentence our obligation is to direct that proper steps be taken to correct the wrong done, without regard to the character of a particular defendant or to the possible effect on others who might also want to challenge the legality of their sentences as they have the right to do “at any time” under Rule 35. If it has any relevance at all, the fact that there may be other prisoners in this country’s jails serving illegal sentences would seem to me to make it all the more imperative that we grant appropriate relief in this case rather than search for some obviously dubious excuse to deny this petitioner’s claim.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
Green v. United States, 365 U.S. 301, 309-310 (1961) [dissent]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/black-hugo/19132/feed/ 0 19132 https://wist.info/blackmun-harry/18649/ https://wist.info/blackmun-harry/18649/#respond Fri, 27 Jul 2012 12:49:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=18649 From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeavored — indeed, I have struggled — along with a majority of this Court, to develop procedural and substantive rules that would lend more than the mere appearance of fairness to the death penalty endeavor. Rather than continue to coddle the Court’s delusion that the desired level of fairness has been achieved and the need for regulation eviscerated, I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed. It is virtually self-evident to me now that no combination of procedural rules or substantive regulations ever can save the death penalty from its inherent constitutional deficiencies. The basic question — does the system accurately and consistently determine which defendants “deserve” to die? — cannot be answered in the affirmative. […] The problem is that the inevitability of factual, legal, and moral error gives us a system that we know must wrongly kill some defendants, a system that fails to deliver the fair, consistent, and reliable sentences of death required by the Constitution.

Harry Blackmun (1908-1999) US Supreme Court Associate Justice (1970-1994) [Harold Andrew Blackmun]
Callins v. Collins, 510 U.S. 1141 (1994) [dissent from denial of certiori]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/blackmun-harry/18649/feed/ 0 18649 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/18295/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/18295/#respond Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:28:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=18295 On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“A Time to Break Silence,” speech, Clergy and Laity Concerned meeting, Riverside Church, New York City (4 Apr 1967)
    (Source)

This address was reworked the following year into his book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, ch. 6, "The World House," sec. 3 (1968), in a slightly altered form:



We are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/18295/feed/ 0 18295 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/17918/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/17918/#respond Mon, 07 May 2012 13:48:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17918 What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? ch. 2 “Black Power” (1967)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/17918/feed/ 0 17918 https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17893/ https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17893/#respond Thu, 03 May 2012 12:40:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17893 When we went to school we were told that we were governed by laws, not men. As a result of that, many people think there is no need to pay any attention to judicial candidates because judges merely apply the law by some mathematical formula and a good judge and a bad judge all apply the same kind of law. The fact is that the most important part of a judge’s work is the exercise of judgment and that the law in a court is never better than the common sense judgment of the judge that is presiding.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Speech, Greater Buffalo Advertising Club, New York (1933)
    (Source)

Quoted in Eugene Gerhart, America's Advocate: Robert H. Jackson, ch. 4 (1958). ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17893/feed/ 0 17893 https://wist.info/marcus-aureleus/17750/ https://wist.info/marcus-aureleus/17750/#respond Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:59:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17750 Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
(Spurious)

Widely attributed to Marcus Aurelius, but no actual citation found, and with some discrepancies to his philosophy. The closest match appears to be Meditations 2.11, but it is a very poor match.

More information:
• Three Shouts on a Hilltop: Marcus Aurelius and source checking
• Undeniably Atheist: Fabricated Marcus Aurelius Quote
• history - Did Marcus Aurelius say "Live a good life"? - Skeptics Stack Exchange
• Act, Talk, Think Like You Might Die RIGHT NOW – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
]]> https://wist.info/marcus-aureleus/17750/feed/ 0 17750 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/17576/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/17576/#respond Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:53:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17576 You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. […] We are not wrong, we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie, love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until “justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech, Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting, Hold Street Baptist Church, Montgomery (5 Dec 1955)

Quotation is from the Bible, Amos 5:24. ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/17576/feed/ 0 17576 https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17225/ https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17225/#respond Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:36:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17225 Civil liberties had their origin and must find their ultimate guaranty in the faith of the people. If that faith should be lost, five or nine men in Washington could not long supply its want.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Douglas v. Jeannette 319 U.S. 157, 181 (1943) [concurring]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17225/feed/ 0 17225 https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/16723/ https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/16723/#respond Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:17:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16723 The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 458 (1949) [concurring]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/16723/feed/ 0 16723 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/15688/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/15688/#respond Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:59:22 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15688 There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1838-01-27), “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” Young Men’s Lyceum, Springfield, Illinois
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/15688/feed/ 0 15688 https://wist.info/bible-ot/15678/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/15678/#respond Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:28:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15678 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
But they refused to listen and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Zechariah 7: 9-12 [NRSV (2021 ed.)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.
[KJV (1611)]




Yahweh Sabaoth says this. He said, "Apply the law fairly, and practice kindness and compassion towards one another. Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the settler and the poor man, and do not secretly plan evil against one another." But they would not pay attention; they turned a petulant shoulder; they stopped their ears rather than hear; they made their hearts adamant rather than listen to the teaching and the words that Yahweh Sabaoth had sent by his spirit through the prophets in the past. This aroused great anger on the part of of Yahweh Sabaoth overtook them.
[JB (1966)]




“Long ago I gave these commands to my people: ‘You must see that justice is done, and must show kindness and mercy to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners who live among you, or anyone else in need. And do not plan ways of harming one another.’
“But my people stubbornly refused to listen. They closed their minds and made their hearts as hard as rock. Because they would not listen to the teaching which I sent through the prophets who lived long ago, I became very angry."
[GNT (1976)]




'Yahweh Sabaoth says this. He said, "Apply the law fairly, and show faithful love and compassion towards one another.
Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the foreigner and the poor, and do not secretly plan evil against one another."
But they would not listen; they turned a rebellious shoulder; they stopped their ears rather than hear;
they made their hearts adamant rather than listen to the teaching and the words that Yahweh Sabaoth had sent -- by his spirit -- through the prophets in the past; and consequently the fury of Yahweh Sabaoth overtook them.
[NJB (1985)]




The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:
Make just and faithful decisions; show kindness and compassion to each other! Don’t oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; don’t plan evil against each other! But they refused to pay attention. They turned a cold shoulder and stopped listening.
They steeled their hearts against hearing the Instruction and the words that the Lord of heavenly forces sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. As a result, the Lord of heavenly forces became enraged.
[CEB (2011)]




Thus said GOD of Hosts: Execute true justice; deal loyally and compassionately with one another.
Do not defraud the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; and do not plot evil against one another. --
But they refused to pay heed. They presented a balky back and turned a deaf ear.
They hardened their hearts like adamant against heeding the instruction and admonition that GOD of Hosts sent to them by divine spirit through the earlier prophets; and a terrible wrath issued from GOD of Hosts.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/15678/feed/ 0 15678 https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/15608/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/15608/#respond Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:44:41 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15608 PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 4, sc. 1, l. 190ff (4.1.190-203) (1597)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/15608/feed/ 0 15608 https://wist.info/tolkien-jrr/15251/ https://wist.info/tolkien-jrr/15251/#respond Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:26:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15251 Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 1 “The Taming of Sméagol” (1954)
    (Source)

Frodo recalling the words of Gandalf (approximately) in The Fellowship of the Ring. ]]> https://wist.info/tolkien-jrr/15251/feed/ 0 15251 https://wist.info/adams-john/15073/ https://wist.info/adams-john/15073/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:25:21 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15073 It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
(Attributed)

Cited in some cases as the closing argument while defending the British Soldiers accused of killing 5 colonists in the "Boston Massacre" (usually given as "Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials" (Dec 1770)), but I did not find it in accounts of that defense. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/15073/feed/ 0 15073 https://wist.info/von-ebner-eschenbach-marie/14803/ https://wist.info/von-ebner-eschenbach-marie/14803/#respond Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:16:11 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14803 The greatest enemy of justice is privilege.

[Der größte Feind des Rechtes ist das Vorrecht.]


Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 219 (1880) [tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]
    (Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:



The greatest enemy of the law of right is the law of prerogative.
[tr. Wister (1883)]


]]> https://wist.info/von-ebner-eschenbach-marie/14803/feed/ 0 14803 https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/14751/ https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/14751/#respond Sun, 29 May 2011 20:38:56 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14751 Justice is truth in action.

[La justice est la vérité en action.]


Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 15 “De la Liberté, de la Justice et des Lois [On Liberty, Justice, and Laws],” ¶ 16 (1850 ed.) [tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 12]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). The same (obvious) translation is used by Attwell (1896), ¶ 203.

See also "Grace is beauty in action." ]]> https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/14751/feed/ 0 14751 https://wist.info/pascal-blaise/14707/ https://wist.info/pascal-blaise/14707/#respond Mon, 23 May 2011 06:58:20 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14707 Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées, #298 (1670) [tr. Trotter (1931)] ]]> https://wist.info/pascal-blaise/14707/feed/ 0 14707 https://wist.info/byron/14583/ https://wist.info/byron/14583/#respond Mon, 09 May 2011 12:53:34 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14583 ANGIOLINA: He hath been guilty, but there may be mercy.

BENINTENDE: Not in this case with justice.

ANGIOLINA:Alas! signor,
He who is only just is cruel; who
Upon the earth would live were all judged justly?


George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, Act 5, sc. 1 (1821)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/byron/14583/feed/ 0 14583 https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/14009/ https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/14009/#respond Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:20:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14009 Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?
 
[Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?]

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
City of God [De Civitate Dei], Book 4, ch. 4 (4.4) (AD 412-416) [tr. Bettenson (1972)]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:



Set justice aside, then, and what are kingdoms but fair thievish purchases?
[tr. Healey (1610)]




Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies?
[tr. Dods (1871)]




In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized brigandage?
[tr. Zema/Walsh (1950)]




And so if justice is left out, what are kingdoms except great robber bands?
[tr. Green (Loeb) (1963)]




Justice removed, then, what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers?
[tr. Dyson (1998)]




Remove justice, then, and what are kingdoms but large gangs of robbers?
[tr. Babcock (2012)]




In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
[E.g.]


]]> https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/14009/feed/ 0 14009 https://wist.info/aristotle/13646/ https://wist.info/aristotle/13646/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:59:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=13646 Virtues, however, we acquire by first exercising them. The same is true with skills, since what we need to learn before doing, we learn by doing; for example, we become builders by building, and lyre-players by playing the lyre. So too we become just by doing just actions, temperate by temperate actions, and courageous by courageous actions.

[τὰς δ’ ἀρετὰς λαμβάνομεν ἐνεργήσαντες πρότερον, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν· ἃ γὰρ δεῖ μαθόντας ποιεῖν, ταῦτα ποιοῦντες μανθάνομεν, οἷον οἰκοδομοῦντες οἰκοδόμοι γίνονται καὶ κιθαρίζοντες κιθαρισταί· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὰ μὲν δίκαια πράττοντες δίκαιοι γινόμεθα, τὰ δὲ σώφρονα σώφρονες, τὰ δ’ ἀνδρεῖα ἀνδρεῖοι.]


Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 2, ch. 1 (2.1, 1103a.32ff) (c. 325 BC) [tr. Crisp (2000)]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:



But the Virtues we get by first performing single acts of working, which, again, is the case of other things, as the arts for instance; for what we have to make when we have learned how, these we learn how to make by making: men come to be builders, for instance, by building; harp-players, by playing on the harp: exactly so, by doing just actions we come to be just; by doing the actions of self-mastery we come to be perfected in self-mastery; and by doing brave actions brave.
[tr. Chase (1847)]




But the virtues we acquire by previous practice of their acts, exactly as we acquire our knowledge of the various arts. For, in the case of the arts, that which we have to be taught to do, that we learn by doing it. We become masons, for instance, by building; and harpers b y playing upon the harp. And so, in like manner, we become just by doing what is just, temperate by doing what is temperate, and brave by doing what is brave.
[tr. Williams (1869), sec. 23]




But the virtues we acquire by first exercising them, as is the case with all the arts, for it is by doing what we ought to do when we have learnt the arts that we learn the arts themselves; we become e.g. builders by building and harpists by playing the harp. Similarly it is by doing just acts that we become just, by doing temperate acts that we become temperate, by doing courageous acts that we become courageous.
[tr. Welldon (1892)]




But the virtues we acquire by doing the acts, as is the case with the arts too. We learn an art by doing that which we wish to do when we have learned it; we become builders by building, and harpers by harping. And so by doing just acts we become just, and by doing acts of temperance and courage we become temperate and courageous.
[tr. Peters (1893)]




But the virtues we get by first exercising them, as also happens in the case of the arts as well. For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyreplayers by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
[tr. Ross (1908)]




The virtues on the other hand we acquire by first having actually practised them, just as we do the arts. We learn an art or craft by doing the things that we shall have to do when we have learnt it: for instance, men become builders by building houses, harpers by playing on the harp. Similarly we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
[tr. Rackham (1934), ch. 1, sec. 4]




The virtues, by contrast, we acquire by first engaging in the activities, as is also true in the case of the various crafts. For the things we cannot produce without learning to do so are the very ones we learn to produce by producing them -- for example, we become builders by building houses and lyre players by playing the lyre. Similarly, then, we become just people by doing just actions, temperate people by doing temperate actions, and courageous people by doing courageous ones.
[tr. Reeve (1948)]




In the case of the virtues, on the other hand, we acquire them as a result of prior activities; and this is like the case of the arts, for that which we are to perform by art after learning, we first learn by performing, e.g., we become builders by building and lyre-players by playing the lyre. Similarly, we become just by doing what is just, temperate by doing what is temperate, and brave by doing brave deeds.
[tr. Apostle (1975)]




Virtues, by contrast, we acquire, just as we acquire crafts, by having previously activated them. For we learn a craft by producing the same product that we must produce when we have learned it, becoming builders, for instance, by building and harpists by playing the harp, so also, then, we become just by doing just actions, temperate by doing temperate actions, brave by doing brave actions.
[tr. Irwin/Fine (1995)]




For as regards those things we must learn how to do, we learn by doing them -- for example by building houses, people become house builders, and by playing the cithara, they become cithara players. So too, then, by doing just things become just; moderate things, moderate; and courageous things, courageous.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]




We develop virtues after we have practiced them beforehand, the same way it works with the other arts. For, we learn as we do those very things we need to do once we have learned the art completely. So, for example, men become carpenters by building homes and lyre-players by practicing the lyre. In the same way, we become just by doing just things, prudent by practicing wisdom, and brave by committing brave deeds.
[tr. @sentantiq (2017)]


]]> https://wist.info/aristotle/13646/feed/ 1 13646 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/13364/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/13364/#respond Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:29:20 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=13364 It is as much the duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same between private individuals.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Message (1861-12-03) to Congress, Annual Message (State of the Union)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/13364/feed/ 0 13364 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/13195/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/13195/#respond Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:25:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=13195 If all men were just, there would still be some, though not so much, need of government.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1854-07-01?), fragment on government
    (Source)

The date was assigned (arbitrarily?) to the fragment by Nicolay and Hay. The speech or lecture it was written for is not recorded. ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/13195/feed/ 0 13195 https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/12391/ https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/12391/#respond Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:10:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12391 To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher
Leviathan, Part 1, ch. 13 (1651)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/12391/feed/ 0 12391 https://wist.info/bible-nt/12190/ https://wist.info/bible-nt/12190/#respond Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:15:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12190 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

[καὶ καθὼς θέλετε ἵνα ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς ὁμοίως.]


The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Luke 6: 31, “The Golden Rule” (Jesus) [KJV (1611)]
    (Source)

Popularly, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

This passage is paralleled in Matthew 7:12.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:



Treat others as you would like them to treat you.
[JB (1966)]




Treat others as you would like people to treat you.
[NJB (1985)]




Do for others just what you want them to do for you.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]




Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.
[CEB (2011)]




Do to others as you would have them do to you.
[NIV (2011 ed.)]




Do to others as you would have them do to you.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-nt/12190/feed/ 0 12190 https://wist.info/bible-nt/12104/ https://wist.info/bible-nt/12104/#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:52:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12104 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

[Πάντα οὖν ὅσα ἐὰν θέλητε ἵνα ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς· οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται.]




The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 7: 12, “The Golden Rule” (Jesus) [KJV (1611)]
    (Source)

Popularly, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

This passage is paralleled in Luke 6:31.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:



So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.
[JB (1966)]




So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the Prophets.
[NJB (1985)]




Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]




Therefore, you should treat people in the same way that you want people to treat you; this is the Law and the Prophets.
[CEB (2011)]




So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
[NIV (2011 ed.)]




In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]


Note: The "Golden Rule" has been expressed in many ways by many religious and philosophical teachers. Several of these in WIST are or will be cross-referenced to this particular quotation (as trackbacks, and through the golden rule topic tag), not to lend it sectarian primacy, but because this is the best-known formulation of it in the Western world.
]]> https://wist.info/bible-nt/12104/feed/ 8 12104 https://wist.info/terence/11997/ https://wist.info/terence/11997/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:52:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=11997 Extreme law is often extreme injustice.

[Ius summum saepe summa malitia est.]


Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Heauton Timoroumenos [The Self-Tormentor], Act 4, sc. 5, l. 48 (l. 796)

Alternate translations:
• "The highest law is often the greatest wrong."
• "Extreme justice is often extreme malice."
• "Rigorous law is often rigorous injustice."
]]> https://wist.info/terence/11997/feed/ 1 11997 https://wist.info/herbert-george/11573/ https://wist.info/herbert-george/11573/#respond Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:44:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=11573 God’s Mill grinds slow, but sure.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 747 (1640 ed.)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/herbert-george/11573/feed/ 0 11573 https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/11042/ https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/11042/#respond Wed, 26 May 2010 15:09:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=11042 For it seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.

[Nam mihi lex esse non videtur, quae justa non fuerit.]


Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Free Choice of the Will [De Libero Arbitrio Voluntatis], Book 1, ch. 4, sec. 11 / 33 (1.4.11.22) (AD 388) [tr Williams (1993)]
    (Source)

More discussion about this and parallel quotations from other notables: An unjust law is no law at all - Wikipedia.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:



A law which is not just does not seem to me to be a law.
[tr. Mark Pontifex (1955)]




For I think that a law that is not just is not a law.
[tr. Benjamin/Hackstaff (1964)]




For I think a law that is not just, is not actually a law.
[E.g.]


]]> https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/11042/feed/ 0 11042 https://wist.info/swift-jonathan/10007/ https://wist.info/swift-jonathan/10007/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:16:15 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=10007 Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.




Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1707)
    (Source)

See Franklin. ]]> https://wist.info/swift-jonathan/10007/feed/ 1 10007 https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/9738/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/9738/#respond Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:31:28 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=9738 PORTIA: Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 4, sc. 1, l. 204ff (4.1.204-208) (1597)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/9738/feed/ 0 9738 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/8907/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/8907/#respond Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:14:06 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=8907 I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/8907/feed/ 0 8907 https://wist.info/euripides/6658/ https://wist.info/euripides/6658/#respond Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:55:13 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6658 CHORUS: Those whose cause is just will never lack
good arguments.

[ΧΟΡΟΣ: φεῦ φεῦ: βροτοῖσιν ὡς τὰ χρηστὰ πράγματα
χρηστῶν ἀφορμὰς ἐνδίδωσ᾽ ἀεὶ λόγων.]


Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 1238ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]
    (Source)

Speaking of Hecuba's appeal to Agamemnon for justice. In some translations, this is marked for Coryphaeus (Chorus Leader)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:



How doth a virtuous cause inspire the tongue
With virtuous language!
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]




Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good words!
[tr. Edwards (1826)]




Lo, how the good cause giveth evermore
To men occasion for good argument.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]




Ah! how a good cause always affords men an opening for a good speech.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]




Good words always start out from good deeds.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]




Did you hear that? See how a good cause gives mortals material for a good argument!
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]




Just causes make fertile soil for strong arguments!
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]


]]> https://wist.info/euripides/6658/feed/ 0 6658 https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/6464/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/6464/#respond Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:37:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6464 Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1941-01-06), “State of the Union [Four Freedoms],” Washington, D. C.
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/6464/feed/ 0 6464 https://wist.info/bok-derek/6357/ https://wist.info/bok-derek/6357/#respond Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:23:14 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6357 There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot.

Derek Bok (b. 1930) American lawyer, educator
Report to Harvard Board of Overseers (21 Apr 1983) ]]> https://wist.info/bok-derek/6357/feed/ 0 6357 https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/6351/ https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/6351/#respond Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:58:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6351 Indeed, justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.

Alexander Solzhenitsen (1918-2008) Russian novelist, emigre [Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn]
Letter to three students (Oct 1967) ]]> https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/6351/feed/ 0 6351 https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/5791/ https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/5791/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:37:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5791 I have spent all my life under a communist regime and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities. The letter of the law is too cold and formal to have a beneficial influence on society. Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relations, there is an atmosphere of moral mediocrity, paralyzing man’s noblest impulses.

Alexander Solzhenitsen (1918-2008) Russian novelist, emigre [Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn]
“A World Split Apart,” Commencement Address, Harvard (8 Jun 1978)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/5791/feed/ 0 5791 https://wist.info/hand-learned/5782/ https://wist.info/hand-learned/5782/#respond Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:29:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5782 If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
Speech, Legal Aid Society of New York (1951-02-16)
    (Source)

On ensuring that accused persons did not lack for counsel needed for a fair trial. ]]> https://wist.info/hand-learned/5782/feed/ 0 5782 https://wist.info/burke-edmund/5457/ https://wist.info/burke-edmund/5457/#respond Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:29:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5457 Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/burke-edmund/5457/feed/ 0 5457 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5324/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5324/#respond Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:28:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5324 This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1859-04-06) to Henry L. Pierce, et al.
    (Source)

The letter is quoted in Charles Sumner's Eulogy to Lincoln, printed in the City of Boston''s A Memorial of Abraham Lincoln, Late President of the United States (1865).

The letter was in response to an invitation from Boston for the celebration of Thomas Jefferson's birthday. Lincoln praised Jefferson, and warned against those who would "overthrow" the principles of freedom Jefferson wrote of so eloquently. Lincoln apparently saw no irony in this passage, even given Jefferson being a slave-holder. ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5324/feed/ 0 5324 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5162/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5162/#respond Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:09:48 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5162 I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Comment (1864, Summer)
    (Source)

Recalled by his long-time friend, Joseph Gillespie, regarding pardons for some army deserters, in O. Oldroyd, The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles (1882).

Often attributed to a speech in Washington (1865), but I can find nothing in his collected works or in Presidential paper collections. ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5162/feed/ 0 5162 https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/5157/ https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/5157/#respond Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:12:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5157 To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“Hallam’s Constitutional History,” Edinburgh Review (Sep 1828)
    (Source)

Review of Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England, from the Accession of Henry VII to George II (1827). ]]> https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/5157/feed/ 0 5157