Helen Prejean Quotes

The law, for all its failings, has a noble goal - to make the little bit of life that people can actually control more just. We can't end disease or natural disasters, but we can devise rules for our dealings with one another that fairly weigh the rights and needs of everyone, and which, therefore, reflect our best vision of ourselves.

I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.

Swift justice demands more than just swiftness.

The Christian - the biblical - concept of mercy toward wrongdoers only exists in relation to justice. Showing mercy, in relation to wrongdoing, means treating someone better than they deserve.

The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.

Unless we provide consequences for activities and actions that are wrong, we are not going to get any truth.

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.

Our sense of fairness tells us that people should pay for the wrong they do.

Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.

Law is the strongest link between man and freedom.

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

There is no equality between that which is right and that which is wrong.

There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

It is justice not charity that is wanting in the world.

Every crime, even the most atrocious, may be justified.

We find the people to be no better than their laws.

All Americans want our government to have a moral compass.

Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers.

As a society are we going to murder people to show that murder is wrong

Justice, which most human beings interpret essentially as fairness, is demonstrably a concept of importance to people all over the world.

For me, the ethical arguments that resonate strongest are the ones that oppose the death penalty.

Compassion is no substitute for justice.

Should there be double standards in the world? Maybe.

To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.

Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverance for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government.