Theme

Philosophy quotes about justice

Justice concerns fairness, rights, desert, and the arrangement of institutions that claim to treat people as equals.

Why this theme matters

Distributive, retributive, and restorative justice name different problems. Political philosophy asks what a just society owes its members and outsiders.

In the history of philosophy

Plato’s Republic, Confucian rightful rule, social-contract theories, and contemporary egalitarian debates structure the field.

Thinkers in this collection

Socrates , Plato , Mencius , John Locke , Wang Yangming , Epicurus , Simone de Beauvoir , Elizabeth Anscombe

Frequently asked questions

What is justice in philosophy?

It is the virtue and institutional standard of giving each their due—though “due” is endlessly debated.

What are the types of justice?

Common distinctions include distributive, procedural, retributive, and restorative justice.

Where are philosophy quotes about justice?

Browse this theme and related pages on politics, power, and morality.

  1. It is worse to do injustice than to suffer it.
  2. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  3. Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.
  4. I say that the noble and good man and woman are happy, and the unjust and wicked are miserable.
  5. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it…Reason…teaches all mankind…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
  6. One must never do injustice in any way.
  7. Justice is somehow a kind of virtue.
  8. Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
  9. One must temper oneself in the midst of affairs; only then can one stand firm — settled in stillness and settled in action alike.
  10. It is impossible to live pleasantly without living wisely, finely, and justly.
  11. All oppression creates a state of war.
  12. It would be a great improvement if, instead of "morally wrong," one always named a genus such as "untruthful," "unchaste," "unjust."
  13. The capabilities approach asks not only about people's total or average well-being but about what each person is able to do and to be.
  14. Your silence will not protect you.
  15. Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not be equal in outcome; reward and punishment follow desert.
  16. By contrast, the majoritarian system might be said to be, in principle, based on consent without consensus.
  17. The version of cosmopolitanism that I favor is exactly about balancing universality and difference.
  18. In spite of decolonisation, the philosophical character of European standpoint on colonisation together with its corresponding practices remains unchanged in its relations with the erstwhile colonies. It is precisely this condition which calls for the need for the authentic liberation of Africa.
  19. To kill one man is called unrighteousness and incurs one capital crime; by this reckoning, to kill ten men is ten times unrighteous and incurs ten capital crimes.