Aristotle Quotes about Justice

The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.

The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.

Aristotle

Being Strong, Justice, Pay

The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want.

Aristotle

Justice, Want, Crime

Teaching is the highest form of understanding.

Aristotle

Educational, Teaching, Justice

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

Aristotle

Kindness, Justice, Black

Aristotle (1953). “Ethics: The Nicomachean Ethics”

In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

Aristotle

Men, Sprung Up, Justice

Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.120, Cambridge University Press

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

Aristotle

Thinking, Justice, Diversity

Justice is Equality...but equality of what?

Aristotle

Justice

They who are to be judges must also be performers.

Aristotle

Justice, Judging, Social Justice

Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.274, Aristotle

No one praises happiness as one praises justice, but we call it a 'blessing,' deeming it something higher and more divine than things we praise.

Aristotle

Happiness, Blessing, Justice

Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.21, Wordsworth Editions

The greatest injustices proceed from those who pursue excess, not by those who are driven by necessity.

Aristotle

Justice, Excess, Driven

Justice therefore demands that no one should do more ruling than being ruled, but that all should have their turn.

Aristotle

Should Have, Justice, Demand

Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far greater, for the weaker are always asking for equality and justice, but the stronger care for none of these things.

Aristotle

Justice, Stronger, Asking

Aristotle (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)”, p.3104, Delphi Classics

There are three qualifications required in those who have to fill the highest offices, - (1) first of all, loyalty to the established constitution; (2) the greatest administrative capacity; (3) virtue and justice of the kind proper to each form of government.

Aristotle

Loyalty, Government, Justice

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.338, Simon and Schuster

Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.

Aristotle

Justice, Soul, Desert

Aristotle (1812). “Works”, p.626

Thus it is thought that justice is equality; and so it is, but not for all persons, only for those that are equal. Inequality also is thought to be just; and so it is, but not for all, only for the unequal. We make bad mistakes if we neglect this for whom when we are deciding what is just. The reason is that we are making judgements about ourselves, and people are generally bad judges where their own interests are involved.

Aristotle

Mistake, Justice, Judging

Justice is the loveliest and health is the best. but the sweetest to obtain is the heart's desire.

Aristotle

Romantic, Heart, Justice

Aristotle (1953). “Ethics: The Nicomachean Ethics”

It is clear that those constitutions which aim at the common good are right, as being in accord with absolute justice; while those which aim only at the good of the rulers are wrong.

Aristotle

Justice, Political, Common

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.

Aristotle

Friendship, People, Justice

Aristotle, Robert C. Bartlett, Susan D. Collins (2012). “Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics”, p.164, University of Chicago Press

Rhetoric is useful because truth and justice are in their nature stronger than their opposites; so that if decisions be made, not in conformity to the rule of propriety, it must have been that they have been got the better of through fault of the advocates themselves: and this is deserving reprehension.

Aristotle

Opposites, Justice, Decision

Aristotle (1890). “Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric, Literally Tr. with Hobbes' Analysis, Examination Questions and an Appendix Containing the Greek Definitions: Also, The Poetic of Aristotle, Literally Tr., with a Selection of Notes, an Analysis, and Questions”

For example, justice is considered to mean equality, It does mean equality- but equality for those who are equal, and not for all.

Aristotle

Sad, Mean, Justice

Between friends there is no need for justice, but people who are just still need the quality of friendship; and indeed friendliness is considered to be justice in the fullest sense.

Aristotle

People, Justice, Quality

Aristotle (2003). “The Aristotle's Ethics: Nicomachean Ethics”, Spark Notes

Between friends there is no need of justice.

Aristotle

Friendship, Real, Justice

Aristotle (1811). “Works”, p.508

It [Justice] is complete virtue in the fullest sense, because it is the active exercise of complete virtue; and it is complete because its possessor can exercise it in relation to another person, and not only by himself.

Aristotle

Exercise, Justice, Ethics

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. As in other sciences, so in politics, it is impossible that all things should be precisely set down in writing; for enactments must be universal, but actions are concerned with particulars. Hence we infer that sometimes and in certain cases laws may be changed.

Aristotle

Writing, Law, Justice

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.260, Simon and Schuster