Virtue index · Cardinal virtue
Justice
The constant and firm will to give each person what is due to him: to God, to neighbors, to the community.
Definitions from the tradition
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics V.1-2: Justice in the full sense is complete virtue in relation to others; particular justice concerns fair distribution and correction in exchanges.
Cicero, De Officiis I.20-23: The first office of justice is that no one harm another unless provoked by wrong; the second, that common things be used as common and private things as one’s own. Good faith, constancy and truth in promises, is its foundation.
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 58, a. 1: Following the Roman lawyers, justice is a habit whereby a man renders to each one his due by a constant and perpetual will.
Scripture, Micah 6:8 (KJV): “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version as given in the library’s text. Other definitions are summarized, not quoted.
Opposing vices
- Injustice: Taking or withholding what belongs to another.
- Partiality: Favoring persons against what the case deserves.
- Vengeance: Private retaliation that exceeds or usurps due judgment.
Works that show justice (266)
Theogony and Works and DaysHesiodHesiod rebukes the bribe-swallowing lords and promises that the city giving straight judgements to strangers and citizens will flourish. Opposing vice: Injustice.c. 700 BCAesop's FablesAesopFables such as The Wolf and the Lamb expose false accusation and the abuse of power. Opposing vice: Injustice.c. 6th century BCE (Townsend trans. 1867)The OresteiaAeschylusThe trilogy moves from blood vengeance to the founding of a jury court on the Areopagus. Opposing vice: Vengeance.458 BCEThe History of the Peloponnesian WarThucydidesThe Melian Dialogue presses the question whether justice has any place between unequal powers. Opposing vice: Injustice.c. 431–411 BCEThe Theban PlaysSophoclesAntigone sets divine law against Creon’s decree, asking what is truly due to the dead and to the gods.c. 429–401 BCEIphigenia in Aulis and Other PlaysEuripidesIn The Suppliants Theseus defends written law and wins burial for the Argive dead.c. 430–405 BCThe Last Days of SocratesPlatoIn the Crito Socrates refuses to escape, holding that one must never return wrong for wrong. Opposing vice: Injustice.c. 399–347 BCEThe RepublicPlatoThe whole dialogue seeks a definition of justice in the city and in the soul. Opposing vice: Injustice.c. 380 BCEStatesmanPlatoWhen true rulers are absent, the Stranger insists that cities keep their laws strictly rather than let anyone override them for private ends.c. 360 BCPoliticsAristotleAristotle grounds the city in a shared sense of the just and asks which regimes aim at the common good.c. 350 BCELawsPlatoBook IV makes rulers the servants of the law and promises salvation to the state where law stands above those who govern.c. 348 BCThe Athenian ConstitutionAristotle (attributed)Solon frees the poor from debt slavery while refusing to strip the rich of their land, holding his shield over both.c. 330 BCThe Method (Geometrical Solutions Derived from Mechanics)ArchimedesHe gives due credit to Democritus for first stating the cone's volume and to Eudoxus for first proving it.c. 250 BCEThe Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)AnonymousThe archangels bring the cry of the slain earth before God in Chapter IX, and judgment falls on the Watchers who corrupted it.c. 300–100 BCThe Histories, Book VIPolybiusRoman magistrates entrusted with great sums keep their oath, while Rome punishes bribery for office with death (ch. 56).c. 150 BCFirst Oration Against CatilineMarcus Tullius CiceroThe speech insists that the consul's duty is the safety of the whole republic and that the senate's decree exists to protect citizens from murder and arson. Opposing vice: Injustice.63 BCThe Republic and The LawsMarcus Tullius CiceroLaelius defends justice as a law of nature against Philus's argument that it is only the interest of the stronger.c. 54-51 BCOn Duties (De Officiis)Marcus Tullius CiceroBook I makes good faith in promises the foundation of justice and forbids harming anyone who has done no wrong.44 BCCatiline's War and The Jugurthine WarSallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus)Caesar urges the senate to judge the conspirators without hatred, affection, anger or pity, so that the punishment fits Roman precedent and not passion.c. 42-40 BCThe History of Rome, Books I-VLivy (Titus Livius)Brutus in Book II sits in judgment on his own sons for plotting to restore the Tarquins and does not spare them.c. 27-9 BCHeroidesOvidHypermnestra's refusal to obey an unjust command to murder sets right above her father's will.c. 25–16 BCThe HistoriesTacitusHelvidius Priscus presses the senate in Book IV to act independently and hold informers to account after the civil war.c. AD 100-110Lives of the Noble Grecians and RomansPlutarchAristides the Just, Phocion, and Cato the Younger show justice in public office and in poverty.c. AD 100-120MeditationsMarcus AureliusMarcus repeatedly reminds himself that he was made for the common good and to act justly toward others.c. 170–180 CEThe Roman HistoryAmmianus MarcellinusAmmianus condemns Julian's law against Christian teachers even while admiring him, an act of fairness toward those outside his own religion.c. 390 CEThe Institutes of JustinianJustinian I (Tribonian and commissioners)Book I, Title 1 defines justice as the constant purpose of giving each his due and makes it the foundation of all the law that follows.533 CEHistory of the Wars, Books I-II (The Persian War)Procopius of CaesareaProcopius declares in his preface that he will record the failures even of his closest acquaintances because truth alone belongs to history.c. 550 CEThe Secret HistoryProcopius of CaesareaProcopius presents his book as a duty to record the truth about wrongs that the official histories concealed, though readers must judge how fairly he does so.c. 550 CEMemoirs of Usama ibn MunqidhUsama ibn MunqidhAfter describing fatal Frankish treatments he immediately reports a Frankish cure that worked, giving the other side its due.c. 1183Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of ConstantinopleGeoffrey de VillehardouinThe abbot of Vaux forbids the attack on Zara because its people are fellow Christians.c. 1207-1213Magna CartaKing John and the barons of EnglandClauses 39 and 40 promise that no freeman will be punished without lawful judgment and that justice will be neither sold nor delayed. Opposing vice: Injustice.1215De Monarchia (with R. W. Church's essay on Dante)Dante Alighieri; R. W. ChurchBook I argues that justice is strongest under a ruler free of greed, who can judge impartially between quarrelling princes.c. 1312-1318UtopiaThomas MoreRaphael argues before Cardinal Morton that a law which hangs men driven to theft by enclosure is neither just nor useful.1516 (Latin); English 1551The Leipzig DisputationMartin Luther, Johann Eck, and Andreas KarlstadtBoth parties agreed in advance to notaries and outside university judges so that the debate would be recorded and assessed fairly.1519Discourse on Voluntary ServitudeÉtienne de La BoétieThe essay holds that no one is kept in servitude without injustice done him, and it ends by committing tyrants and their accomplices to the judgment of God.c. 1548 (published 1576)Speech to the Troops at TilburyElizabeth IShe pledges in the word of a prince that the soldiers' rewards shall be duly paid, binding herself to what she owes them.1588The Taming of the ShrewWilliam ShakespeareKate's final speech frames marriage as an exchange of duties, the husband's labour and care answered by the wife's love and obedience.c. 1590-92 (First Folio 1623)Richard IIIWilliam ShakespeareThe fulfillment of Margaret's curses and Richard's defeat show the moral order the play upholds against tyranny.c. 1592-93 (published 1597)Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Preface and Book I)Richard HookerHooker teaches that human laws must be measured by the law eternal and the law of reason to discern whether they are reasonable, just and righteous.1594The Comedy of ErrorsWilliam ShakespeareDuke Solinus upholds the law but gives Egeon a day's grace and pardons him once the truth is known.c. 1594 (First Folio 1623)The Merchant of VeniceWilliam ShakespearePortia, as Balthazar, refuses to wrest the law of Venice even for Antonio's sake and decides the case by the bond's exact words.c. 1596-97 (published 1600)Much Ado About NothingWilliam ShakespeareBenedick risks his friendship with Claudio and the Prince to challenge the man who shamed an innocent woman.c. 1598-99 (published 1600)Henry VWilliam ShakespeareHe condemns the Southampton traitors and the church-robber Bardolph without regard to friendship.1599Mark Antony's Funeral Oration ("Friends, Romans, countrymen")William ShakespeareAntony answers the charge of ambition with evidence the citizens saw themselves, the ransoms, the tears for the poor and the refused crown.1599HamletWilliam ShakespeareClaudius's murder of his brother is exposed and punished, and the throne passes to Fortinbras.c. 1600On the Magnet (De Magnete)William GilbertHe asks that due honour be paid to Aristotle, Ptolemy, Hippocrates and Galen even while correcting them.1600The Mayflower CompactThe Mayflower PilgrimsThe signers promise to frame just and equal laws for the general good and to obey them.1620The Rights of War and Peace (Book I)Hugo GrotiusGrotius insists in Chapter I that even war is governed by right and must aim at peace.1625A Model of Christian CharityJohn WinthropThe discourse distinguishes the rule of justice in commerce from the rule of mercy toward the needy and gives careful rules for lending and forgiving debts.1630Lex, RexSamuel RutherfordQuestion XXVI insists that the king himself is bound by the law that made him king, so that no one stands outside justice.1644The Commonwealth of OceanaJames HarringtonThe girls' rule of divide and choose, which Harrington makes the principle of his senate and people, ensures that each receives a fair share.1656A Theologico-Political TreatiseBaruch SpinozaSpinoza insists that the faithful are known by their love of justice and charity and that a government must punish deeds, not opinions.1670A Letter Concerning TolerationJohn LockeExcommunication may expel a member but must leave his body and estate untouched, since civil goods belong under the magistrate's equal protection.1689Essays, Moral and Political (selection)David HumeOf the Origin of Government makes the support of the judges the end of the whole apparatus of the state.1741-1752The Spirit of the LawsMontesquieuBook XII demands that punishments follow the nature of each crime and that no one be punished for thoughts or indiscreet words.1748Discourse on the Origin of InequalityJean-Jacques RousseauThe conclusion judges it contrary to natural law that a handful of men abound in superfluities while the famished multitude lack necessities.1755Commentaries on the Laws of EnglandWilliam BlackstoneBook I, ch. 1 makes the protection of each person's security, liberty and property the principal aim of society.1765-1769Letters from a Farmer in PennsylvaniaJohn DickinsonDickinson grants Parliament its lawful power over trade while denying the power to tax, giving each authority its due.1767-1768The Journal of John WoolmanJohn WoolmanAfter writing one bill of sale for an enslaved woman, Woolman refuses to write the next conveyance a young Friend asks of him.1774Give Me Liberty or Give Me DeathPatrick HenryHe frames the question as one of freedom or slavery and of rights long petitioned for and spurned.delivered 1775; text published 1817The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Selections)Edward GibbonGibbon praises Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius for governing a vast empire under the guidance of virtue and wisdom (Chapter III).1776-1789The Virginia Declaration of RightsGeorge MasonSection VIII guarantees an accused man notice of the charge, confrontation of witnesses and a speedy trial by an impartial jury before he can lose his liberty.1776The Wealth of NationsAdam SmithSmith's natural liberty operates only within the laws of justice, and he condemns monopolies that let producers profit at the public's expense.1776The Articles of ConfederationContinental CongressArticle IX sets out a careful procedure of commissioners drawn by lot to settle boundary disputes between states fairly.1777 (ratified 1781)The Virginia Statute for Religious FreedomThomas JeffersonThe act forbids that any citizen be barred from offices of trust or burdened in body or goods because of his religious opinions.1777 (enacted 1786)A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of AmericaJohn AdamsHis design gives the one, the few and the many each a share of power so that none can wrong the others.1787-1788The Federalist PapersAlexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John JayMadison calls justice the end of government and civil society in No. 51.1787-1788Critique of Practical ReasonImmanuel KantThe gallows example turns on refusing to bear false witness against an innocent man, a duty the reader recognizes even at the cost of life.1788Hamilton's Reports and Opinion on the BankAlexander HamiltonHamilton insists on paying both original holders and later purchasers the full amount the government promised, calling anything less a breach of contract.1790-1791The Burke-Paine Debate on the French RevolutionEdmund Burke and Thomas PainePaine grounds his argument in the equal rights of all men by creation and closes Part II with provision for the poor and the aged.1790-1791Perpetual PeaceImmanuel KantKant grounds peace in right, insisting that every state's constitution and every policy toward other nations be measured by principles that could be declared publicly.1795The Virginia and Kentucky ResolutionsJames Madison and Thomas JeffersonKentucky's sixth resolution insists that no person under the protection of the laws be removed on the President's suspicion without jury, public trial, confrontation of witnesses or counsel.1798-1799First Inaugural Address (Jefferson)Thomas JeffersonHe names equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, as the first essential principle of the government.1801Marbury v. MadisonSupreme Court of the United StatesThe opinion insists that every vested legal right deserves the protection of the laws, even against the highest executive officers.1803Fletcher v. PeckSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court protects buyers who paid fairly and knew nothing of the bribery from losing land they had honestly acquired.1810IvanhoeWalter ScottIvanhoe rides out still weak from his wound to defend an innocent woman at Templestowe.1819 (dated 1820)McCulloch v. MarylandSupreme Court of the United StatesThe opinion protects an institution created by all the people from being taxed by the people of one state alone, while preserving the states' ordinary taxes.1819Trustees of Dartmouth College v. WoodwardSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court holds New Hampshire to the terms on which donors gave their property, refusing to let the state take control of what private benefactors had entrusted to the founder's trustees.1819Philosophy of RightG. W. F. Hegel§36 grounds all right in the command to be a person and respect others as persons, and Part One treats punishment as honouring the offender as rational.1820The Monroe DoctrineJames MonroeThe message upholds the independence of the Spanish American republics that the United States had recognized on what Monroe calls just principles.1823Gibbons v. OgdenSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court opens navigation between New York and New Jersey to any vessel licensed by Congress, ending a monopoly that kept rival boats out of shared waters.1824Hayne's Reply to Webster (Speech on Foot's Resolution)Robert Y. HayneHayne asks that the government win the people's loyalty by dispensing equal justice rather than by distributing money and favors.1830Second Reply to HayneDaniel WebsterHe insists that each Senator must regard the good of the whole with an equal eye and that federal law binds every state alike.1830Worcester v. GeorgiaSupreme Court of the United StatesMarshall holds the United States and Georgia to the boundaries and guarantees sworn in the treaties of Hopewell and Holston.1832Barron v. BaltimoreSupreme Court of the United StatesThe opinion gives each government its due sphere, insisting that state abuses be remedied by the people of the state under their own constitution.1833Father Goriot (Le Père Goriot)Honoré de BalzacRastignac refuses Vautrin's offer of Victorine's fortune bought with her brother's death.1835Charles River Bridge v. Warren BridgeSupreme Court of the United StatesStory insists that the state owes the bridge proprietors the full value of the bargain on which they risked their capital in 1785.1837Oliver TwistCharles DickensMr. Brownlow patiently gathers proof until Monks must confess the destroyed will and restore Oliver's inheritance.1838The Thousand and One Nights (Lane's translation, Volume I)Anonymous; translated by Edward William LaneHároon Er-Rasheed will not let the murdered damsel of the Three Apples go unanswered and holds even his own Wezeer Jaạfar to account until the cause is traced to Jaạfar's slave.1838-1841A System of Logic, Book III: Of InductionJohn Stuart MillMill states Whewell's views at length and in later editions answers his reply, granting where he thinks Whewell is right about Kepler's process of guessing.1843Tales (Selection)Edgar Allan PoeDupin investigates the Rue Morgue killings partly to free Adolphe Le Bon, an innocent clerk who once did him a service.1839–1846The Count of Monte CristoAlexandre DumasDantes’ revenge raises the question of where justice ends and vengeance begins. Opposing vice: Vengeance.1844–1846A Disquisition on GovernmentJohn C. CalhounHis praise of the jury, where twelve must agree on a true verdict under oath, shows the even-handed judgment he wanted government to imitate.1849 (published 1851)The LawFrédéric BastiatBastiat insists that the law exists to give each person the secure possession of what is his and to take from no one.1850CranfordElizabeth GaskellMiss Matty gives the farmer five sovereigns for the bank's note because she feels bound as a shareholder.1851–53Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher StoweGeorge Shelby frees every slave on his Kentucky farm in Tom's memory.1852 (serialized 1851-52)The WardenAnthony TrollopeMr. Harding resigns his comfortable wardenship when he becomes unsure it is justly his.1855The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My ChildrenCharles KingsleyTheseus clears the road to Athens of Sinis, Sciron and Procrustes, punishing each robber with his own cruelty.1856The Old Regime and the RevolutionAlexis de TocquevilleHe records how the taille and the road corvée fell on peasants while nobles and officials enjoyed exemptions.1856Dred Scott v. SandfordSupreme Court of the United StatesCurtis gathered the laws of five states and the 1778 record of the Confederation Congress to argue that free men of African descent already held citizenship at the founding.1857House Divided SpeechAbraham LincolnHe refuses the care-not doctrine and insists that whether slavery spreads is a moral question the nation must decide. Opposing vice: Injustice.1858The Lincoln-Douglas DebatesAbraham Lincoln and Stephen A. DouglasLincoln insisted at Ottawa that in the right to eat the bread his own hand earns, the black man is the equal of every living man.1858A Tale of Two CitiesCharles DickensDarnay renounces an estate built on the misery of its tenants and returns to France to help the imprisoned Gabelle.1859The Woman in WhiteWilkie CollinsWalter spends months gathering evidence so that Laura's identity can be proved before the people who denied it.1859–60Considerations on Representative GovernmentJohn Stuart MillChapter VII calls it a needless injustice that a minority should have no representatives, and seeks representation in proportion to numbers.1861Les MisérablesVictor HugoValjean walks into the court at Arras and names himself so that Champmathieu will not be condemned in his place.1862The Gettysburg AddressAbraham LincolnThe address grounds the nation on the proposition that all men are created equal and calls the war a test of it.1863Alice's Adventures in WonderlandLewis CarrollAlice protests the Queen's demand for sentence before verdict as plain nonsense.1865Second Inaugural AddressAbraham LincolnHe names two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil as an offense that must be paid for, and judges the war's cost righteous.1865Ex parte MilliganSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insists that even a man accused of conspiring with the enemy must be indicted and tried by a jury in the open courts of his state.1866Experiments in Plant Hybridisation (in Bateson's Mendel's Principles of Heredity)Gregor Mendel; William BatesonBateson's Defence insists that Mendel be judged by his own records rather than by a critic's misreading of them.1866No TreasonLysander SpoonerHis whole argument turns on the claim that no one may rightly take another's property or service without his agreement, as in the highwayman comparison of No. VI.1867-1870The MoonstoneWilkie CollinsFranklin Blake gathers the witnesses' narratives and submits to Ezra Jennings' experiment to establish the truth about his own guilt. Opposing vice: Injustice.1868The Subjection of WomenJohn Stuart MillMill asks that marriage law be judged by what it allows the worst husband to do, not by the conduct of the best.1869Hepburn v. GriswoldSupreme Court of the United StatesChase insists that creditors who lent in good faith should receive the value they were promised, not a lesser sum fixed by statute.1870Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaJules VerneAronnax refuses to approve the sinking of the warship, saying that whatever Nemo had suffered, he had no right to punish thus. Opposing vice: Wrath.1869-1870 (French); English 1872-73Legal Tender CasesSupreme Court of the United StatesField insists that the Constitution's purpose to establish justice requires that debts be paid in substance and not merely in name.1871MiddlemarchGeorge EliotMary Garth refuses to burn Featherstone's will at his command on his last night, though it may cost Fred his inheritance.1871–72Slaughter-House CasesSupreme Court of the United StatesField and Bradley insist that every citizen, whatever his race or condition, has an equal claim to pursue a lawful calling without a state-made monopoly in the way.1873The Wise Woman (A Double Story)George MacDonaldIn the throne room Rosamond runs between the soldiers and the shepherd's family and calls the shepherdess her good, kind mistress.1875Munn v. IllinoisSupreme Court of the United StatesWaite holds that those who control a passage through which all must go may charge only what is reasonable, a principle as old as Hale's ferries.1877Reynolds v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesWaite holds that a man who keeps a witness away cannot invoke the right of confrontation to profit from his own wrong.1879The Prince and the PauperMark TwainTom frees the man condemned for an unproved poisoning in Chapter XV after examining the evidence himself.1881The Merry Adventures of Robin HoodHoward PyleThe band resists corrupt force on behalf of the wronged. Opposing vice: Injustice.1883The Princess and CurdieGeorge MacDonaldCurdie exposes Dr Kelman and the plotting courtiers and helps the king judge them in the market place.1883 (serialized 1882)Adventures of Huckleberry FinnMark TwainHuck steals back the Wilks gold from the frauds and hides it in Peter Wilks's coffin so the orphaned sisters will not be robbed.1884 (UK) / 1885 (US)KidnappedRobert Louis StevensonDavid recovers his rightful estate by lawful means through Mr. Rankeillor and resolves to testify for the innocent James Stewart.1886Little Lord FauntleroyFrances Hodgson BurnettHe persuades the Earl to spare the farmer Higgins and to pull down the fever-ridden cottages of Earl's Court. Opposing vice: Indifference.1886 (serialized 1885-86)The Black ArrowRobert Louis StevensonDick gives up Gloucester's favor to buy back the life of Arblaster, whom his theft of the Good Hope had ruined.1888 (serialized 1883)Billy Budd and Other StoriesHerman MelvilleCaptain Vere weighs law, conscience, and necessity in judging Billy.1924 (written 1886–1891); stories 1850sRerum NovarumPope Leo XIIILeo insists that a wage must suffice for a frugal and well-behaved worker, whatever the bargain says.1891The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan DoyleHolmes clears James McCarthy and Arthur Holder, both wrongly accused, and exposes James Windibank's heartless trick on his stepdaughter.1892 (stories 1891-92)Jude the ObscureThomas HardyPhillotson, at the cost of his post, refuses to hold Sue against her will, judging that conscience outweighs his claim.1895Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.Supreme Court of the United StatesFuller holds the government to the terms of a bargain the states made in 1787, however inconvenient its results.1895Plessy v. FergusonSupreme Court of the United StatesHarlan grounds his dissent in the principle that every citizen stands equal before the law in the exercise of civil rights.1896Captains CourageousRudyard KiplingDisko refuses to sacrifice eight men's season's bread for one rich passenger and pays Harvey a fair wage.1897Lectures on CalvinismAbraham KuyperIn Lecture III he assigns the state the duty of protecting each sphere of society and the conscience of each person rather than absorbing them.1898The Arabian Nights EntertainmentsAndrew Lang (ed.)The Caliph, having heard Ali Colia's case judged by a child at play, has the child decide the real case and restores the stolen gold.1898United States v. Wong Kim ArkSupreme Court of the United StatesGray insists that the courts must give full effect to the Constitution's words even where Congress and the executive had chosen to deny Chinese immigrants citizenship.1898Cuchulain of MuirthemneLady GregoryAfter killing Culain's hound in self-defence, the boy offers to guard the smith's house himself until a new hound is trained. Opposing vice: Injustice.1902The Souls of Black FolkW. E. B. Du BoisDu Bois argues in Chapter III that the vote, civil rights and higher education are owed to Black Americans and must be asked for openly.1903The Story of King Arthur and His KnightsHoward PyleArthur defends King Leodegrance and Guinevere against King Ryence and Duke Mordaunt's unjust demands.1903Jacobson v. MassachusettsSupreme Court of the United StatesHarlan holds that each person's liberty must be exercised without injury to the safety of neighbors.1905Lochner v. New YorkSupreme Court of the United StatesPeckham insists that the state may not favor one class of workers through a law dressed as a health measure if it bears no real relation to health.1905BotchanNatsume SōsekiBotchan refuses the raise Red Shirt offers him out of the salary of the transferred Koga.1906The Aim and Structure of Physical TheoryPierre DuhemIn tracing the history of gravitation he gives credit to ancient and medieval thinkers whom earlier histories had passed over.1906White FangJack LondonGrey Beaver, though harsh, defends White Fang against the family of a boy who tried to beat him over meat scraps he had fairly found, and White Fang learns to guard his master's property in return.1906Citizenship in a Republic ("The Man in the Arena")Theodore RooseveltHe calls for equality of opportunity, puts human rights above property rights in a real conflict, and condemns class hatred on either side.1910If—Rudyard KiplingBeing lied about, the son must not deal in lies, and being hated, must not give way to hating, refusing to repay wrong with wrong.written c. 1895; published 1910Twenty Years at Hull-HouseJane AddamsDuring the Pullman strike she tries to understand both the company and the workers rather than condemn either.1910Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesBoth opinions agree that a combination built to exclude rivals and control a necessary commodity must be undone.1911The Innocence of Father BrownG. K. ChestertonIsrael Gow takes every grain of the gold willed to him and not one grain more, even putting the earl's skull back in the grave once its gold tooth is removed.1911Death in VeniceThomas MannThe English clerk tells Aschenbach the truth about the cholera, while Aschenbach resolves to warn the Polish family and then keeps silent. Opposing vice: Injustice.1912Theodore Roosevelt: An AutobiographyTheodore RooseveltIn the letter printed in Chapter XIII he insists that the square deal applies equally to wrongdoing capitalists and wrongdoing labor leaders.1913In Flanders FieldsJohn McCraeThe poem treats keeping faith with those who died as a debt the living owe them.1915The Thirty-Nine StepsJohn BuchanHannay takes up the murdered Scudder's mission because he hates to see a good man downed.1915A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJames JoycePandied unfairly by Father Dolan, the small Stephen walks alone down the long corridor to tell the rector, who sets the wrong right.1916Schenck v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court weighs the nation's duty to raise an army in wartime against the citizen's freedom to criticize the law, giving each a place in its test.1919Webb v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court refuses to let a label stand in for substance, holding that an order sold to sustain a habit is not a prescription merely because a physician signed it.1919The Mysterious Affair at StylesAgatha ChristiePoirot repays Mrs. Inglethorp's charity to the Belgian refugees by refusing to rest until her murderers are found.1920Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other PlaysLuigi PirandelloThe Step-Daughter demands that the scene at Madame Pace's be shown truthfully rather than softened by the actors.1921Meyer v. NebraskaSupreme Court of the United StatesMcReynolds insists that constitutional protection belongs equally to those who speak other languages and to those born speaking English.1923Gitlow v. New YorkSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court, for the first time, treats freedom of speech as a liberty the states themselves must respect.1925Linder v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesMcReynolds insists that a physician's good faith be judged on evidence, not presumed absent because his patient was addicted.1925Pierce v. Society of SistersSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court protects lawful schools that had done nothing wrong from being destroyed by a law that served no purpose regulation could not.1925The TrialFranz KafkaSeeing the warders flogged because of his complaint, K. tries to buy them off and stop the beating, though he finally shuts the door on them.1914-1915 (published 1925)Religion and the Rise of CapitalismR. H. TawneyTawney traces the medieval demand that prices and loans not exploit a neighbour's necessity.1926Buck v. BellSupreme Court of the United StatesThe case shows by its failure what justice requires: a genuine defense, honestly tested facts and regard for the person before the court.1927All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria RemarquePaul sees the starving Russian prisoners as men like himself and shares his cigarettes with them.1929 (German, Im Westen nichts Neues, serialized 1928)Mourning Becomes ElectraEugene O'NeillLavinia refuses to let her father's murder go unpunished and finally judges herself as strictly as she judged her mother.1931Near v. MinnesotaSupreme Court of the United StatesHughes holds that even a scandal sheet must be answered through libel trials on what it actually printed rather than silenced in advance.1931Farmer BoyLaura Ingalls WilderAlmanzo returns Mr. Thompson's fifteen hundred dollars untouched, and Mr. Paddock insists that the honest boy be fairly rewarded.1933First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear")Franklin D. RooseveltHe demands an end to speculation with other people's money and to treating public office as a source of personal profit.1933The Logic of Scientific DiscoveryKarl PopperHis rules against conventionalist stratagems require that a theory be judged fairly by the evidence rather than protected by special pleading.1934 (English 1959)A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insists that criminal penalties rest on laws made by the body the Constitution entrusts with lawmaking.1935Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. (Gold Clause Cases)Supreme Court of the United StatesBoth opinions ask what creditors and debtors are fairly owed when the value of money itself has been changed by law.1935NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.Supreme Court of the United StatesThe opinion holds that workers may choose their representatives as freely as the company chooses its officers.1937West Coast Hotel Co. v. ParrishSupreme Court of the United StatesHughes asks what a worker is owed when her bargaining position leaves her unable to earn enough to live, and what the community is owed when it must make up the difference.1937Lassie Come-HomeEric KnightSam Carraclough returns Lassie to the Duke every time she escapes, because she was honestly sold. Opposing vice: Dishonor.1940Minersville School District v. GobitisSupreme Court of the United StatesStone, writing alone against eight colleagues, argued that the Court owed special protection to a small and unpopular faith.1940Pearl Harbor Address ("A Date Which Will Live in Infamy")Franklin D. RooseveltHe grounds the declaration in an unprovoked attack made during negotiations, and seeks it through Congress as the Constitution requires.1941Homer PriceRobert McCloskeyHomer gets to know the bearded stranger Michael Murphy before judging him, while the sheriff and the town judge him by his beard and ears.1943The Abolition of ManC. S. LewisThe appendix gathers laws of justice, good faith and duty to parents and children as part of the Tao shared by many civilizations.1943West Virginia State Board of Education v. BarnetteSupreme Court of the United StatesJackson's opinion protects the conscience of every citizen against officials high or petty who would prescribe orthodoxy.1943Korematsu v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesJackson insisted that guilt is personal and refused to let the law punish a citizen for an act innocent in anyone of different parentage.1944No Exit and Three Other PlaysJean-Paul SartreLizzie at first refuses to sign the senator's false statement against an innocent man, and hides him from the mob.1944-1948The Road to SerfdomF. A. HayekChapter 6 asks that coercion be governed by general rules applying equally to all, not by officials' judgments about particular people.1944Animal FarmGeorge OrwellMajor's vision of a farm where all share the fruits of their labour is betrayed when the pigs take the milk and apples for themselves. Opposing vice: Injustice.1945Stuart LittleE. B. WhiteAs substitute teacher at School Number Seven, Stuart sets the children thinking about what fair laws a Chairman of the World should make.1945Politics and the English LanguageGeorge OrwellThe political section insists that violent acts be called by plain names so that readers can judge them honestly.1946SEC v. W. J. Howey Co.Supreme Court of the United StatesMurphy insists that investors receive the disclosure the law requires whatever legal form the offering takes.1946Everson v. Board of EducationSupreme Court of the United StatesBlack insists that the state may not cut off citizens from public welfare benefits because of their faith, while forbidding taxes in support of any church.1947Little BritchesRalph MoodyFather first negotiates a fair sharing of the ditch water with the upstream ranchers before taking them to court.1950Sweatt v. PainterSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insists that Sweatt is owed, as an individual and without delay, the same legal education Texas offered other applicants.1950The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeC. S. LewisEdmund, rescued and forgiven, fights his way to the Witch and breaks her wand, and is crowned King Edmund the Just.1950The Origins of TotalitarianismHannah ArendtCh. 9 asks what is owed to the stateless, who had lost every legal protection through no deed of their own.1951Charlotte's WebE. B. WhiteFern protests in Chapter I that killing the runt just because it is small is unfair, and wins its life.1952The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderC. S. LewisCaspian deposes the governor Gumpas and abolishes the slave trade in the Lone Islands, freeing the captives.1952Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. SawyerSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court held the President to the same constitutional limits in wartime as in peace, returning the seized property to its owners.1952Brown v. Board of Education of TopekaSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court held that the equal protection of the laws forbids states to assign children to schools by race.1954Lord of the FliesWilliam GoldingRalph insists on assemblies, the rule of the conch and shared duties, and goes to Castle Rock to demand Piggy's stolen glasses back.1954The Horse and His BoyC. S. LewisAravis's scratches answer the stripes her maid suffered for her escape, and Aravis asks Aslan whether the maid will be hurt any more.1954Twelve Angry MenReginald RoseJuror 8 insists on reasonable doubt and a fair weighing of evidence.1954 (teleplay)The Magician's NephewC. S. LewisFrank the cabby, made king, promises Aslan to rule the creatures fairly, protect them from enemies, and favor none above the others.1955The FallAlbert CamusAs a lawyer Clamence defended widows and orphans and refused bribes, real works of justice whose motives he later examines.1956Physics and PhilosophyWerner HeisenbergHe devotes a full chapter to stating and answering the critics of his own interpretation.1958The Witch of Blackbird PondElizabeth George SpeareMatthew Wood refuses to join the mob against Hannah and stands by Kit before the magistrates.1958To Kill a MockingbirdHarper LeeAtticus defends Tom Robinson fully and shows the jury that Mayella's injuries came from a left-handed man, though he knows he will likely lose.1960Freedom and the LawBruno LeoniHe describes the Roman jurisconsults and English judges as discovering what each party could rightly claim in a particular case rather than imposing a new rule.1961Mapp v. OhioSupreme Court of the United StatesClark insists that the citizen receive no more than the Constitution guarantees and the officer no less than honest law enforcement deserves.1961Baker v. CarrSupreme Court of the United StatesBrennan holds that citizens whose votes count for a fraction of their neighbours' may at least be heard in court.1962Engel v. VitaleSupreme Court of the United StatesBlack seeks to protect religious minorities from the indirect pressure of a prayer backed by the power and prestige of the state.1962One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAleksandr SolzhenitsynTyurin fights the camp administration for a fair work report so his brigade will be fed.1962 (Russian; English trans. 1963)Robinson v. CaliforniaSupreme Court of the United StatesStewart insists that punishment answer to what a person has done, not merely to what condition he is found to be in.1962Abington School District v. SchemppSupreme Court of the United StatesClark holds that a family's freedom of conscience in a public school does not depend on how many neighbors share its beliefs.1963Gideon v. WainwrightSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court holds that every defendant must stand equal before the law, whatever his means.1963I Have a DreamMartin Luther King Jr.King demands that the nation pay the debt of equal citizenship promised in the Declaration and the Constitution. Opposing vice: Injustice.1963SEC v. Capital Gains Research Bureau, Inc.Supreme Court of the United StatesGoldberg insists that those who are paid for advice give clients what they bargained for: counsel free of hidden self-interest.1963Sermons and Letter from Birmingham JailMartin Luther King Jr.King distinguishes just and unjust laws, drawing on Augustine and Aquinas.1955-1963Across Five AprilsIrene HuntMatt's earlier refusal to let a mob hang Travis Burdow shows a respect for law that Dave Burdow later repays by protecting Jethro.1964New York Times Co. v. SullivanSupreme Court of the United StatesBrennan seeks a rule that protects officials from deliberate lies while leaving citizens free to criticize their government.1964Griswold v. ConnecticutSupreme Court of the United StatesThe majority seeks to protect the marriage relationship from intrusion by the criminal law into the home.1965Miranda v. ArizonaSupreme Court of the United StatesWarren insists that the government produce evidence by its own labors rather than by compelling it from the accused.1966The Trumpet of the SwanE. B. WhiteThe cob flies back to the Billings music store with Louis's money to repay the storekeeper for the trumpet and the broken window.1970A Theory of JusticeJohn RawlsRawls opens the book by calling justice the first virtue of social institutions and builds his whole theory on that claim.1971Lemon v. KurtzmanSupreme Court of the United StatesWhite argues that families who educate their children in religious schools still perform a public function the state may fairly support.1971The Hiding PlaceCorrie ten BoomThe family risks everything to protect Haarlem's Jews from deportation, refusing to stand aside while their neighbors are hunted.1971Wisconsin v. YoderSupreme Court of the United StatesJustice Douglas insisted that the children themselves were persons whose own convictions deserved a hearing before the courts decided their futures.1972Roe v. WadeSupreme Court of the United StatesBoth the majority and White's dissent insist that the interests on each side be weighed, disagreeing chiefly over whether a court or a legislature should do the weighing.1973San Antonio Independent School District v. RodriguezSupreme Court of the United StatesMarshall insists that a child's start in life should not depend on the taxable property of the district where the family happens to live.1973The Gulag ArchipelagoAleksandr SolzhenitsynHe gathered the testimony of hundreds of prisoners so that their wrongs, and the names of the dead, would be recorded.1973United States v. NixonSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insisted that the twofold aim of criminal justice, convicting the guilty and protecting the innocent, requires all relevant evidence, whoever holds it.1974O'Connor v. DonaldsonSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insists that a person's liberty cannot be taken without a real justification, however unpopular or unusual that person may be.1975Ernst & Ernst v. HochfelderSupreme Court of the United StatesBlackmun insists that investors who lost their savings deserve a remedy against professionals whose certificates the public relies on.1976TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway, Inc.Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Court resolves doubts about omitted facts in favor of shareholders while refusing to impose liability for insignificant omissions.1976The Methodology of Scientific Research ProgrammesImre LakatosIn Chapter 2 he insists that methodologies be judged fairly against the whole history of science rather than against a few convenient cases.1978Addington v. TexasSupreme Court of the United StatesBurger holds that the State, not the individual, must bear most of the risk of a mistaken commitment.1979Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. LewisSupreme Court of the United StatesWhite insists that duties owed to clients should be enforceable by the clients they protect.1979Aaron v. SECSupreme Court of the United StatesStewart gives each clause of the statute its own meaning, so that defendants are held to the standard Congress actually wrote.1980Chiarella v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesPowell insists that a criminal conviction rest only on a duty the law actually imposes and a theory the jury actually heard.1980Plyler v. DoeSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insists that the protection of equal laws extends to every person within a state's jurisdiction.1982Dirks v. SECSupreme Court of the United StatesBlackmun insists that shareholders who traded without the information should not bear the cost of exposing a fraud.1983Lowe v. SECSupreme Court of the United StatesStevens judges the newsletters by what they were rather than by their author's past wrongs, refusing to punish speech for the speaker's history.1985Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahonSupreme Court of the United StatesBlackmun insists that the securities laws were written to protect investors and that the forum for their claims should serve that end.1987Basic Inc. v. LevinsonSupreme Court of the United StatesBlackmun refuses to let companies misstate facts investors consider significant merely because a deal has not been finalized.1988Reves v. Ernst & YoungSupreme Court of the United StatesMarshall extends the securities laws' protection to ordinary cooperative members who bought notes advertised as safe investments.1990Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. CaseySupreme Court of the United StatesScalia insists that the Court's task is to decide what the Constitution protects, not what the Justices prefer, and the joint opinion likewise disclaims any power to mandate its authors' moral code.1992The GiverLois LowryAfter seeing his father release a newborn twin, Jonas refuses to accept the Community's practice and plans with the Giver to return the memories to all.1993United States v. O'HaganSupreme Court of the United StatesGinsburg holds that a fiduciary who secretly turns a principal's information to his own profit takes what belongs to another.1997Washington v. GlucksbergSupreme Court of the United StatesThe majority insists that the law protect the poor, the elderly and the disabled from pressure, treating all lives as equally under the law's protection.1997Olmstead v. L. C.Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Court insists that people able to live in the community should not be kept apart merely because services were not arranged for them.1999John AdamsDavid McCulloughAdams defends the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre because he believes every accused person deserves counsel.2001Zelman v. Simmons-HarrisSupreme Court of the United StatesThomas insists that poor urban families deserve the same freedom to seek a good education for their children that wealthier families already have.2002SEC v. EdwardsSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Court refuses to let promoters escape the securities laws by the simple device of promising a fixed rate.2004Gonzales v. RaichSupreme Court of the United StatesStevens holds that a single national rule must apply evenly, while the dissenters insist that the Constitution's division of powers be honored.2005The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the BarbariansPeter HeatherHeather presents competing interpretations of Rome's fall and answers them with evidence rather than dismissing them.2005The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live InHugh KennedyKennedy gives a chapter to the conquered peoples' own accounts, setting their testimony beside the victors'.2007District of Columbia v. HellerSupreme Court of the United StatesJustice Scalia sought to give the words of the Amendment the meaning they bore for the people who ratified them.2008Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic EyesTamim AnsaryAnsary sets out the beliefs and aims of reformers, secularists and Islamists in the terms each used, giving each side a fair hearing.2009Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyEric MetaxasIn 1933 he argues that the church must stand with the Jews and must not exclude pastors of Jewish descent.2010National Federation of Independent Business v. SebeliusSupreme Court of the United StatesGinsburg emphasizes fairness to insured Americans who bear the costs of care for those without coverage.2012Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.Supreme Court of the United StatesThomas gives Myriad credit for a genuine scientific achievement while holding that the law rewards only what a person has made, rendering to each side what the statute allows.2013Obergefell v. HodgesSupreme Court of the United StatesBoth the majority and the dissents framed their opinions as faithful to the Constitution: Kennedy in extending equal treatment to the petitioners, Roberts in preserving the people's authority to decide.2015Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman WorldAdrian GoldsworthyThe chapters on governors examine how provincials could prosecute extortionate officials, showing Roman law's attempt to restrain abuse.2016Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health OrganizationSupreme Court of the United StatesKavanaugh sets out the arguments of each side in their strongest form before explaining what he believes the Constitution requires.2022The New Roman Empire: A History of ByzantiumAnthony KaldellisThe book credits the empire's endurance partly to a legal system, from Justinian's codification onward, that gave subjects reason to support the state.2023
In Plutarch’s Lives
Theseus, Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Solon, Publius Valerius Poplicola, Timoleon, Aemilius Paulus, Aristides, Quintus Sertorius, Phocion, Marcus Porcius Cato (the Younger), Agis IV, Cleomenes III, Tiberius Gracchus, Dion of Syracuse, Marcus Junius Brutus
Quotations
Frequently cited
“Lords, I forbid you, on the part of the Pope of Rome, to attack this city; for those within it are Christians, and you are pilgrims.”
“because covetousness, which is the root of all evil, let and hindered them.”
“REVENGE is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out”
Frequently cited
“Sir, I would lay the foundation of this government in the affections of the people—I would teach them to cling to it by dispensing equal justice, and above all, by securing the “blessings of liberty” to “themselves and to their posterity.””
Frequently cited
“tell truth, and shame the devil”
“Kept close in the palace am I, bound with heavy chains; and the cause of my punishment is that I was faithful.”
Frequently cited
“It was his conviction that while cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history.”
Frequently cited
“If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.”
Frequently cited
“Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction.”
Frequently cited
“But when the laws are written down, rich and poor alike have equal justice, and it is open to the weaker to use the same language to the prosperous when he is reviled by him, and the weaker prevails over the stronger if he have justice on his side.”
“It is better, my son, to honor Equality, who always joins friend to friend, city to city, allies to allies;”
Frequently cited
“never to do outrageousity nor murder, and always to flee treason; also, by no means to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy”
“But if I have to be an earl, there's one thing I can do: I can try to be a good one.”
“I have, however, witnessed a case of their medicine which was quite different from that.”
“It is the height of injustice not to pay a veteran more than a recruit”
“I do perceive here a divided duty”
“If the state is the organisation of men seeking a common good, power and political position must be given to those who can forward this end”
Frequently cited
“It is, Sir, the people's Constitution, the people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.”
Frequently cited
“The South asks for justice, simple justice, and less she ought not to take.”
“a life is a life, old shrew, and it is more than ships or liquor.”
“War is but noble by the cause, and y' have disgraced it.”
Frequently cited
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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”
Frequently cited
“Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives to every man his due.”
Frequently cited
“The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give every man his due.”
Frequently cited
“I believed Slave-keeping to be a Practice inconsistent with the _Christian_ Religion”
“I believed that Liberty was the natural Right of all Men equally”
Frequently cited
“I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself.”
Frequently cited
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.”
“It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice.”
“Then how doth one know there was poison given at all?”
Frequently cited
“The world is made wrong; kings should go to school to their own laws, at times, and so learn mercy.”
“All your strength is in your union, All your danger is in discord; Therefore be at peace henceforward, And as brothers live together.”
“thou must bear in mind that thou art not as an ordinary errant knight, but that thou art a King, and that thy life belongeth not unto thee, but unto thy people”
Frequently cited
“The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven. They were not born today nor yesterday; They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang”
“I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed”
“When I say "Square deal," I mean a square deal to every one”
“the common stock of intellectual enjoyment should not be difficult of access because of the economic position of him who would approach it”
Frequently cited
“if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this but that you first make thieves and then punish them?”
Discussion questions
- How is giving each person his due different from treating everyone the same?
- What do we owe to God, to parents, and to strangers?
- When is punishment just, and when does it become vengeance?
- Which character in your reading suffered injustice, and how did he or she respond?
Other virtues: Prudence · Fortitude · Temperance · Faith · Hope · Charity · Piety · Honor · Industry · Humility · Magnanimity · Friendship