Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.

It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.

I don't think we can undo the past. … We have to do the best we can now...I don't think quotas are a good idea...I don't think quotas are a good idea. I think it is a mistake to begin to assign quotas on the basis of religion or race or color, or nationality. … We are too mixed, this society of ours, to begin to divide ourselves on the basis of race or color.

A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

Justice is the sum of all moral duty.

The law, in our case, seems to make the right; and the very reverse ought to be done - the right should make the law.

How I wish we lived in a time when laws were not necessary to safeguard us from discrimination.

In the dispensation of justice, no distinction is to be admitted, whether between the man of wealth or the poor man, the master or the slave, the European or the Hottentot.

Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness in an everlasting stream.

The source of justice was the fear of injustice.

Oh Justice, when expelled from other habitations, make this thy dwelling place.

Justice and Fairness to All

Justice is incidental to law and order

Every law must be just in every part of it, but if the penalty annexed be unjust, how can it be held forth as a just law?

Justice is charity in accordance with wisdom.

In the long run it is more important to us as a nation to show the world that we believe in equality of opportunity, that we realize that any kind of segregation is discrimination whether it comes about because of race, color, or creed, and that we are determined to show the world that we believe in the things we preach.

We are justified in believing that the success of this movement for equality of the sexes means more progress toward equality of the races.

This is what I call the American idea of freedom — a government of the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice — the unchanging law of God.

A good law is one that holds, whether you recognize it or not; a bad law is one that cannot, however much you ordain it.

There is such a thing as justice which is not necessarily the same thing as law.

Justice is never given; it is exacted.

I think it's important for people of colour to have similar opportunities to white people; that's what is most important.

There are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws... What is the difference between the two?...An unjust law is a man-made code that is out of harmony with the moral law.