Justice
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2.The controversy over natural and conventional justice
2a.Justice as unchanging and universal
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 55When right prevails, ministers lack power and common men do not argue.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 267Justice dwelling with the gods below did not trace Creon's laws.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 37–38True righteousness is unchanging, though its application varies with times and places; patriarchs' acts were just.read · scan
- p. 39Asks whether it can ever be unjust to love God and neighbour; righteousness is one and constant.read · scan
- p. 41A society of men is just which serves God, even if his command breaks their ordinance.read · scan
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36
- p. 288Natural justice and reason and the Pope's own canon law are violated by selling benefices.read · scan
Sir Henry Vane, A Healing QuestionVol. 43
- p. 124Their inward warrant of justice and righteousness upheld them beyond former law.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 112–113People submit only to reason or justice; the sovereignty of reason and justice is natural to man, not tyrannical.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39
- p. 217Justice is a virtue independent of time or place, so his age cannot excuse him.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 261Urges pure universal righteousness giving no offence to non-Christians, blacks or natives.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 416–418Wherever men strike for justice, God is there.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 278He wrongly treats the just and unjust as statutes of a will, not eternal values.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 331The reason within commands universal, impartial justice and receiving truth however it wars with pride.read · scan
- p. 343–344Arbitrary ordinations cannot permanently degrade human nature or subvert principles of justice and freedom.read · scan
2b.Justice as custom, might and the interest of the stronger
See also: Law 6d
Aesop, FablesVol. 17
- p. 11The wolf seeks a pretext to seize the lamb, showing the strong manufacturing excuses for injustice.read · scan
- p. 11–12The wolf devours the innocent lamb on absurd pretexts, blaming her for her father's supposed offence.read · scan
Plutarch, AlcibiadesVol. 12
- p. 136–138Anaxilaus argues the Spartans themselves counted only what profits the country as honorable and just.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 112–113When the sword rules, modesty and fair dealing are claimed by the stronger; the vanquished are called fools.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 373Ignorance of the causes of right, equity and justice leads men to judge just and unjust by precedent and past punishment.read · scan
Andrew Marvell, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 372–374Ancient rights plead in vain; rights hold or break as men are strong or weak.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 104Definitions of justice conflict: legislator's authority, sovereign's interest, custom; nothing is just in itself by reason alone.read · scan
- p. 104Nothing will be just on balance if we return to fundamental laws.read · scan
- p. 104–106Lacking true justice, we have found force; custom of a country is taken as the rule.read · scan
- p. 106Justice without might is helpless, might without justice tyrannical; since justice is disputed, men made the strong just.read · scan
- p. 106Equality of goods is just, but unable to make might obey justice, men made obedience to might just.read · scan
- p. 108–109Justice is determined by custom.read · scan
- p. 109What is established is held just without examination.read · scan
- p. 113Dangerous to tell people laws are unjust, since they obey only because they think them just.read · scan
- p. 305–306Men could not make might obey justice, so they put justice in the hands of might; what men must obey is called just.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 380–381Institutions become just after establishment because it is unjust to disturb them.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 218–219Illegal arbitrary power can never found the rights of society or institutional inequality.read · scan
- p. 225Under despotism notions of good and principles of justice disappear.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 538Smuggler violates his country's laws yet is incapable of violating natural justice; such laws make a crime of what nature did not.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 228–229Popular will, like a king's, is not the standard of right and wrong.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 370–371Fools prate of right and wrong while knaves laugh them to scorn.read · scan
- p. 419–421Right and wrong by law reduced to a strong arm and long swordread · scan
2c.Justice as relative to viewpoint and geography
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 43Confucius sets family loyalty against informing on a thieving father.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 36Love or hate alters the aspect of justice; a paid advocate is confident in his cause.read · scan
- p. 102–103Ridicules the arbitrary law that the elder brother gets all, and killing justified by birthplace.read · scan
- p. 103Justice depends on which side of the water one lives; killing is murder or heroism by geography, and man is ignorant of true justice.read · scan
- p. 103True justice would be unchanging, yet what counts as just varies with climate and latitude; justice bounded by a river.read · scan
- p. 104Justice does not reside in customs, and no universal law is found; killing by a man across the water is ridiculous.read · scan
- p. 124Men act as if certain where reason and justice lie.read · scan
- p. 124–125Justice exists as God reveals it; human justice is not essentially just, and changes across nations.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 240Ideas of justice and honesty contradicted in practice led to doubt of received opinions.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CirclesVol. 5
- p. 156–157Justice is relative to viewpoint: paying money debts is not the whole of justice against debts to mankind and higher claims.read · scan
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