We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.

When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

A precedent embalms a principle.

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

I have fun out there on the court, smiling, laughing, trying to have good demeanor.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

Due process should matter.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure.

Not to help justice in her need would be an impiety.

A right delayed is a right denied.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

More law, less justice.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

It’s annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

I think some of my colleagues‘ spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.

We are proud of the history of our country; we learned it in school and have grown up hearing of freedom, justice and human rights.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.

You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa, and if we’re honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

I think we understand that for the Court to work well, we have to not only respect but genuinely like each other.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

I like to get out and get up the court, using my speed and aggressiveness toward the hoop.

The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing – that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world – is what I wish for all.

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

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant.

Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.

In time of war the laws are silent.