Justice
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3.Justice and injustice in the soul
3a.Doing wrong as the worse evil
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 19Unjustly taking a life is a greater evil than suffering it; a bad man cannot truly injure a better one.read · scan
Plato, CritoVol. 2
- p. 35–36The higher part of man is improved by justice and ruined by injustice, and is more honored than the body.read · scan
Paul, The First Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 497Better to suffer wrong and be defrauded than to wrong and defraud brethren.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 216–217Wrongdoer wrongs himself; use the present with reason and justice.read · scan
- p. 266The wrongdoer wrongs himself by making himself bad; injustice also lies in omitting to act.read · scan
- p. 272A wrongdoer's harm is his own.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 64–65The porter begs not to be killed for others' offence; he argues guilt is individual and cites pardon of the helpless.read · scan
John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39
- p. 159–160Chaucer's dying Arcite acknowledges the injustice of his proceedings.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 34The oppressor is guilty of the evil done and of the perversion of mind caused in those wronged.read · scan
3b.Refusal to return injury for injury
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 49Confucius rejects repaying evil with good: meet evil with justice, good with good.read · scan
Plato, CritoVol. 2
- p. 36–37The question is whether escaping would be right, regardless of money, reputation or death.read · scan
- p. 37–38Injustice is always evil and dishonorable to the doer; one must never do wrong or retaliate injury for injury.read · scan
- p. 38–39Leaving would desert principles acknowledged as just; the injustice of the sentence does not justify retaliation.read · scan
- p. 42–43Justice must come before life and children; Socrates dies a sufferer, not a doer of evil, and must not return injury for injury.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 331Brutus refuses to kill Antony, insisting an act for right and the laws must stay free of injustice.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 177Do not dwell on the brother's injustice.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 211To endure is part of justice; men do wrong involuntarily.read · scan
- p. 229When another wrongs me, let him look to it; he has his own disposition.read · scan
- p. 237Wrongdoers err in judging what is profitable, and should be treated with understanding.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 19Cellini protests the injustice of losing his clothes and savings to his brother, and his father asks him to bear it.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 318–319Holds there is no injury like revenge and none so well repaid as contempt of injury; to hate another is to malign oneself.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 364–365He will meet the injustice he suffers with contempt.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 413Stauffacher counsels meeting future evil rather than avenging the past.read · scan
3c.Self-love as the root of injustice
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 239Making distinctions among indifferent things causes us to do injustice.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 193–194Asks why he is more stung by reproach on himself than by equal injustice done to another.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 196Seeking one's pleasure by blocking another's is open wrong; giving something up is repaid in benefits and conscience.read · scan
Sir Henry Vane, A Healing QuestionVol. 43
- p. 120Liberty grown on private, selfish interest withers, as with the government from the Norman Conquest.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 43It is unfair to wish others to esteem us more than we deserve.read · scan
- p. 43A heart of equity would accept others knowing and despising our real faults.read · scan
- p. 79–80Presumption joined with meanness is extreme injustice.read · scan
- p. 151–152Men satisfy lust without injuring others only by artifice; injustice remains.read · scan
- p. 152The self is unjust in making itself the centre of everything; removing inconvenience does not remove injustice.read · scan
- p. 156It is unjust for men to attach themselves to me; I am not their end and must die.read · scan
- p. 157–158We are born unjust since all tends to self; desiring others' love is unfair.read · scan
- p. 159Members retaining nourishment from others would be unjust and miserable.read · scan
- p. 162Self-love is opposed to justice and truth since all demand the same thing.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 85Love of possession and mastery is the root of almost all injustice and contention in human life.read · scan
- p. 91Children must be set right, even severely rebuked, when they transgress rules of justice.read · scan
- p. 91Children deviate from right and wrong through self-love; injustice must be suppressed early, and honesty founded on liberality and later notions of property.read · scan
- p. 118All injustice generally springs from too great love of ourselves and too little of others.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 387–388Constrained justice from fear of the magistrate is not chosen justice.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 281–282Persecutors' logic that they may persecute because they are right is condemned as gross injustice if applied to ourselves.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 255Ship's petty fraud against port regulation weakens regard for others' rights; sailor as unfree agent is not accountable.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 130Covetousness makes the nation incapable of justice and brings punishment on each person.read · scan
3d.The cost of integrity in public life
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 14A man of worth escapes punishment when wrong prevails and is not neglected when right prevails.read · scan
- p. 60–61Liu-hsia Hui, as judge, keeps upright service despite dismissals; Pi-kan died for his reproofs.read · scan
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 19–20He who fights for the right must remain private to live even a short time.read · scan
- p. 20Socrates opposed an illegal trial of the generals, choosing law and justice over fear of imprisonment and death.read · scan
- p. 21A man who supports the right and puts justice first cannot survive long in public life.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 251Socrates refused to arrest Leon; content with being just towards men.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 25Dante asks whether any just man lives in Florence; only two are just.read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36
- p. 63–64Alexander's just rule, no execution without trial, did not save him from contempt and murder.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 331A just man speaking of right, justice and truth is nearly seized by the assembly and is rescued by a cloud.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 279–280Burke pays a testimony owed to truth and gratitude to the persecuted clergy.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 54–56He champions the oppressed and vindicates injuries, yet must live with villains and use violence for the sake of justice.read · scan
Giuseppe Mazzini, Byron and GoetheVol. 32
- p. 393–395Byron stigmatized baseness, hypocrisy and injustice wherever he found them.read · scan
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