I think the first duty of society is justice.

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither person nor property will be safe.

Wherever there is injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.

If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh unless, since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience the injustice of our fellows.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?

There is but one thing of real value—to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.

My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.

Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow-beings.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really man it.

A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes…loses its moral rights to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.

Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?

O beautiful for spacious skies, For Amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to allow his vision wherever it takes him.

We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.

Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.

Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles in the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.