Excerpt: These quotes on justice were collected to empower you to take action against injustice anywhere—because silence is as bad as injustice itself.
Introduction: Indifference Is As Bad As Injustice
Love is as love does; Hate is as hate does; Indifference doesn’t do. Both hate and love do; care is involved. In the case of love, we care for ourselves and others and so we express it in the form of positive, constructive, kind, mindful actions. Love is not something that can be expressed through intention only.
In the case of hate, we care against ourselves and others and so we express it in the form of negative, cold, vile, destructive, even malevolent actions. Hate, like love, can only be expressed through action and extends beyond the realm of intention. When hate is expressed, it is an acted upon intention to hurt, demean, control, or even kill another living being.
Indifference is different, however, in that no care is involved. Silence is the absence of care. Silence is the stance of neutral. Silence is as harmful as hate. For, if hate is being expressed and the people around are silent—wouldn’t that imply that all are in agreement with what is happening? Wouldn’t it follow that if hate is being expressed and the people around speak up and actively oppose that hate with love, wouldn’t that, in fact, imply that what is happening is NOT agreed upon and rather needs to be stopped?
Doing nothing is the same as supporting what was (or is being) done.
NEW In The Shop: Don’t Let The Tame Ones Tell You How To Live [Poster]
Why We ♥ It: Some of the best advice I (Matt here) ever got was: don’t take life advice from people who aren’t living a life you want to live and don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice. I created this poster to act as a reminder to listen more closely to our role models and less closely to our critics, trolls, and tamed-comfort-zone-hugger acquaintances. It’s also a perfect gift for the outdoor adventurer, travel enthusiast, or solo explorer (or soon to be). Available in print or digital download. 👇🏼
...Want to advertise your book, product, or service? Send inquiries to matt@movemequotes.com.
The List: 40 Empowering Quotes on Justice and How Silence Is As Bad As Injustice Itself
Below, you will find our list of 40 Quotes on Justice that will empower you to ACT during times of injustice. What we need, now more than ever, are people, like you, to become a part of the movement for change. If not now, when? If not as a result of the atrocities of today, what atrocities will it take? If not because you’re unaffected, what about when you are? Who will you hope to have by your side? We need to be there for others the way we would want others to be there for us.
For, as Martin Luther King Jr., said so iconically, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I hope you will find your courage, find your voice, find your feet, and help march in the movement(s) that’ll lead us to a better tomorrow—with vigor and safety for all in mind. I hope that if my words weren’t enough, that you’ll find your sense of empowerment from the movers and shakers quoted below. I’m not saying this because I’m hoping for you—I’m saying this because we need you.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“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.”
Albert Einstein
“To be just, it is not enough to refrain from injustice. One must go further, and refuse to play it’s game: substituting love for self-interest as the driving force of society.”
Pedro Arrupe SJ
“Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.”
Jean-Paul Sartre
“Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.”
William Penn
“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
Elie Wiesel
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie I
“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”
D. H. Lawrence
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Desmond Tutu
“When you have something to say, silence is a lie.”
Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 91)
“Not to speak one’s thought is slavery.”
Euripides
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Victims [of bullying] say that when they’re taunted and demeaned and no one comes to their defense, they start to believe they deserve it. They start to judge themselves and to think that they are inferior.”
Carol Dweck, Mindset
“The greatest fear in the world is the opinion of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheet, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.”
Osho
“That’s the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“A person who makes selfish choices or acts contrary to their conscience will never be at peace. A person who sits back while others suffer or struggle will never feel good, or feel that they are enough, no matter how much they accomplish or how impressive their reputation may be. A person who does good regularly will feel good. A person who contributes to their community will feel like they are a part of one. A person who puts their body to good use—volunteering, protecting serving, standing up for—will not need to treat it like an amusement park to get some thrills.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 250)
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”
Maya Angelou
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“I believe that you and I – and everyone we’ll ever meet – has the inborn capacity to be heroic, to take daring, courageous, and noble steps to make life better for others, even when in the short term it seems to be at our own expense. The capacity to do the right thing, to dare to take a stand and make a difference, is within you now.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
“If you believe in your heart that you are right, then you must fight with all your might to do it your way. Only dead fish swim with the stream all the time.”
Linda Ellerbee
“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
Abraham Lincoln
“The television reports gave me my first inkling of a world beyond my own, a world that wasn’t fair or equal, a world of poverty, war, disease and famine. But I also realized that this state of affairs wasn’t necessarily a given, and that we have it in our power to make a difference, to make the world a better place for all. We have that choice. One thing’s for sure, though – if we do nothing, it will be a given.”
Chrissie Wellington, A Life Without Limits
“If we want justice for minorities and cooled wars with our natural enemies, whether human or nonhuman, we must first come to terms with the minority and the enemy in ourselves and in our own hearts, for the rascal is there as much as anywhere in the ‘external’ world – especially when you realize that the world outside your skin is as much yourself as the world inside.”
Alan Watts, The Book
“Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbelieving, man or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, we are all equal. We all share basic needs for food, shelter, safety, and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us wants the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture, and language make no difference.”
Dalai Lama
“True peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice.”
Jane Addams
“I have found that battling despair does not mean closing my eyes to the enormity of the tasks of effecting change, nor ignoring the strength and the barbarity of the forces aligned against us. It means teaching, surviving and fighting with the most important resource I have, myself, and taking joy in that battle. It means, for me, recognizing the enemy outside and the enemy within, and knowing that my work is part of our power, and knowing that this work did not begin with my birth nor will it end with my death. And it means knowing that within this continuum, my life and my love and my work has particular power and meaning relative to others.”
Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals
“you tell me to quiet down cause
my opinions make me less beautiful
but i was not made with a fire in my belly
so i could be put out
i was not made with a lightness on my tongue
so i could be easy to swallow
i was made heavy
half blade and half silk
difficult to forget and not easy
for the mind to follow”
Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey (Page 30)
“Many times we think someone is ranting, but they’re actually speaking with conviction, and everyone has just forgotten the sound of real passion. We’re so afraid of absolutes and a strong gut and digging in your heels that we dismiss the powerful voice of a lonely fighter. Listen for quiet strength, for humble confidence. It’s not often someone will stand for what is right, what is true, what is pure. More often we’re afraid to admit we’re afraid, because the truth is so blinding in a dark world.”
J. S. Park
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable.”
John F. Kennedy
“I do believe that where there is only a choice between violence and cowardice, I would advise violence.”
Mahatma Ghandi
“Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
Winston Churchill
“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
Rosa Parks
“Self-acceptance comes from meeting life’s challenges vigorously. Don’t numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.”
Swami Sivananda
“I’m concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice; I’m concerned about brotherhood; I’m concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Picture Quotes on Justice To Share:
NEW In The Shop: Don’t Let The Tame Ones Tell You How To Live [Poster]
Why We ♥ It: Some of the best advice I (Matt here) ever got was: don’t take life advice from people who aren’t living a life you want to live and don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice. I created this poster to act as a reminder to listen more closely to our role models and less closely to our critics, trolls, and tamed-comfort-zone-hugger acquaintances. It’s also a perfect gift for the outdoor adventurer, travel enthusiast, or solo explorer (or soon to be). Available in print or digital download. 👇🏼
...Want to advertise your book, product, or service? Send inquiries to matt@movemequotes.com.
Written by Matt Hogan
Founder of MoveMe Quotes. On a mission to help busy people do inner work—for better mental health; for healing; for personal growth. Find me on Twitter / IG / Medium. I also share daily insights here. 🌱
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