Environmental justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without enjoying fair environmental benefits. — Van Jones
Justice is not something that can be achieved by simply following rules. It requires a deep and ongoing commitment to equality and fairness. — Martha C. Nussbaum
Charity provides crumbs from the table; justice offers a place at the table. — Bill Moyers
A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity. — Ralph Nader
Justice is the firm and continuous desire to render to everyone that which is his due. — Justinian I
Justice is what love looks like in public. — Cornel West
Absolute justice demands that mens incomes and rewards should ... vary, and that some have more than others-so long as human justice is upheld by the provision of equal opportunity for all. — Sayyid Qutb
I think the first duty of society is justice. — Wendell Phillips
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. — Nelson Mandela
Short Social Justice Quotes
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld. — Saint Augustine
Justice and peace can only thrive together, never apart. — Oscar Arias
Nothing is to be preferred before justice. — Socrates
Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public — Cornel West
Charity should be abolished; and be replaced by justice. — Norman Bethune
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Envy plus rhetoric equals "social justice.". — Thomas Sowell
Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
One of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice. — Julian Assange
Without justice there can be no love. — Bell Hooks
Top 10 Social Justice Quotes
Education means to bring out wisdom. Indoctrination means to push in knowledge. — Dick Gregory
True religion is a revolutionary force: it is an inveterate enemy of oppression, privilege, and injustice. — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help free the other half. — Emmeline Pankhurst
Together, hand in hand, with our matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country. — Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism. — Shirley Chisholm
But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why? — Walter E. Williams
One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. — Crazy Horse
Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. — Dorothy Day
Living on borders and in margins, keeping intact one's shifting and multiple identity and integrity, is like trying to swim in a new element, an "alien" element. — Gloria E. Anzaldúa
A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect — Vann R. Newkirk II
Social Justice Image Quotes
Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.
Human Rights And Social Justice Quotes
Nations will rise and fall, but equality remains the ideal. The univeral aim is to achieve respect for the entire human race, not for the dominant few. — Carlos P. Romulo
There can be no peace without justice and respect for human rights. — Irene Khan
When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick. — Cesar Chavez
If we bring about that women seek to gain the rights of independence, to increase their sphere of responsibilities, and to incline toward studies, then human abilities will increase daily. — Kang Youwei
Democracy is the absolute value that makes for human dignity, as well as the only road to sustained economic development and social justice. — Kim Dae-jung
Putting women's traditional needs at the center of social planning is not reverse sexism. It's the best way to reverse the increasing economic vulnerability of men and women alike. — Stephanie Coontz
Women had always fought for men, and for their children. Now they were ready to fight for their own human rights. Our militant movement was established. — Emmeline Pankhurst
Over the last eight years of being on YouTube, I've seen so much progress. I think the reason for that is that a lot of young people are having open dialogue and honest conversations about social justice and human rights. — Tyler Oakley
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apparently called President Obama directly to complain about NSA and how it spies on ordinary Americans. That's right, the guy who runs Facebook got mad at the NSA for spying on people. Talk about the pot unfriending the kettle! — Jimmy Fallon
Democracies don't go to war against each other, and by and large they don't sponsor terrorism. They're more likely to respect the environment and human rights and social justice. It's no accident that most of the terrorists come from non-democratic countries. — William J. Clinton
Social Injustice Quotes
I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera. — Gordon Parks
I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave. I will oppose it with all the moral powers with which I am endowed. I am no advocate of passivity. — Lucretia Mott
It would be extremely naive to expect the dominant classes to develop a type of education that would enable subordinate classes to perceive social injustices critically. — Paulo Freire
The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice. — Paul Robeson
Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex. — Karl Marx
I'm against having a Fed. It's socialism in its worst form. But until the Fed is gotten rid of, the only economic variable the poor have to counteract the injustices of the Fed is the minimum wage law. — Max Keiser
Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice. — Harry S. Truman
National injustice is the surest road to national downfall. — William E. Gladstone
Peace is not just the absence of mass destruction, but a positive internal and external condition in which people are free so that they can grow to their full potential. — Petra Kelly
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility. — Olympe de Gouges
A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody. — George Bernard Shaw
Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education. — Julian Bond
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. — Alexis de Tocqueville
Inequality can be done away with only by establishing a new society, where men and women will enjoy equal rights, resulting from an upheaval in the means of production and in all social relations. Thus, the status of women will improve only with the elimination of the system that exploits them. — Thomas Sankara
All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. — Chief Joseph
Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them. — B. R. Babasaheb Ambedkar
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Economic Justice Quotes
Instead of building the peace by attacking injustices like starvation, disease, illiteracy, political and economic servitude, we spend a trillion dollars on war since 1946, until hatred and conflict have become the international preoccupation. — Daniel Berrigan
Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship. — A. Philip Randolph
If globalization is to succeed, it must succeed for poor and rich alike. It must deliver rights no less than riches. It must provide social justice and equity no less than economic prosperity and enhanced communication. — Kofi Annan
Sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want for all. It offers a framework to generate economic growth, achieve social justice, exercise environmental stewardship and strengthen governance. — Ban Ki-moon
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. — John Rawls
The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty. — John Maynard Keynes
When the forest is destroyed, when the river is dammed, when the biodiversity is stolen, when fields are waterlogged or turned saline because of economic activities, it is a question of survival for these people. So our environmental movements have been justice movements. — Vandana Shiva
We educated, privileged lawyers have a professional and moral duty to represent the underrepresented in our society, to ensure that justice exists for all, both legal and economic justice. — Sonia Sotomayor
Dr. King once said, "You cannot legislate goodness, and you cannot pass a law to force someone to respect you. The only way to social justice, in a capitalist country, is through economic parity." — John Hope Bryant
It is necessary not only to relieve the gravest needs but to go to their roots, proposing measures that will give social, political and economic structures a more equitable and solidaristic configuration. — Pope Benedict XVI
Equality And Justice Quotes
I don't need no peace. I need equal rights and justice. — Peter Tosh
We must stop constantly fighting for human rights and equal justice in an unjust system, and start building a society where equal rights are an integral part of the design. — Jacque Fresco
I am leaving this legacy to all of you...to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace. — Rosa Parks
I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. — Muhammad Ali
We live in an age in which the fundamental principles to which we subscribe - liberty, equality and justice for all - are encountering extraordinary challenges, ... But it is also an age in which we can join hands with others who hold to those principles and face similar challenges. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The search for justice and security, the struggle for equality of opportunity, the quest for tolerance and harmony, the pursuit of human dignity - these are moral imperatives which we must work towards and think about on a daily basis. — Aga Khan IV
I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for. — Helen Suzman
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, . . . neither persons nor property will be safe. — Frederick Douglass
Now all we need is to continue to speak the truth fearlessly, and we shall add to our number those who will turn the scale to the side of equal and full justice in all things. — Lucy Stone
Racial Justice Quotes
Those who deplore our militants, who exhort patience in the name of a false peace, are in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social peace at the expense of social and racial justice. They are more concerned with easing racial tension than enforcing racial democracy. — A. Philip Randolph
The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society. — Michelle Alexander
Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is clear that the way to heal society of its violence . . . and lack of love is to replace the pyramid of domination with the circle of equality and respect. — Manitonquat
My fight is not for racial sameness but for racial equality and against racial prejudice and discrimination. — John Oliver Killens
I would like to believe that the discovery of even a single fossil bacteria on Mars would teach us what we ought to know all along, and that is what binds us here on earth - all the diverse peoples here - is really much more profound than what seems to separate us. — Richard E. Berendzen
My hope is that feminist, racial justice, reproductive rights and LGBT movements build a coalition that centers on the lives of women who lead intersectional lives and too often fall in between the cracks of these narrow mission statements. — Janet Mock
This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy — Martin Luther King, Jr.
One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole - yet mass incarceration tends to be categorized as a criminal justice issue as opposed to a racial justice or civil rights issue (or crisis). — Michelle Alexander
Equal Justice Quotes
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home. — Eleanor Roosevelt
I am a social democrat - I believe in pursuing greater equality and tackling social justice - but... you can't do that unless you have got a strong economy, unless you have got a vibrant business base earning the wealth that makes that possible. — Nicola Sturgeon
We ask only for justice and equal rights-the right to vote, the right to our own earnings, equality before the law. — Lucy Stone
America you are beautiful . . . and blessed . . . . The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life. — Pope John Paul II
I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people. — Rosa Parks
Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it. — Malcolm X
There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has. — Hugo Black
I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice. — Friedrich August von Hayek
Social Inequality Quotes
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. — Eugene V. Debs
I recognize that globalization has helped many people rise out of poverty, but it has also damned many others to starve to death. It is true that global wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities have also grown and new poverty arisen. — Pope Francis
The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The world is a ladder for some to go up and others down. — American Proverbs
All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities. — James F. Cooper
Inequality is the root of social evil. — Pope Francis
I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice. — Arne Duncan
Health inequalities and the social determinants of health are not a footnote to the determinants of health. They are the main issue. — Michael Marmot
More money is put into prisons than into schools. That, in itself, is the description of a nation bent on suicide. I mean, what is more precious to us than our own children? We are going to build a lot more prisons if we do not deal with the schools and their inequalities. — Jonathan Kozol
There can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental degradation, and as long as the weak and small continue to be trodden by the mighty and powerful. — Dalai Lama
Social Change Quotes
The despair is there; now it's up to us to go in and rub raw the sores of discontent, galvanize them for radical social change. — Saul Alinsky
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. — Richard Buckminster Fuller
Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality. — Dalai Lama
Urbanization is not about simply increasing the number of urban residents or expanding the area of cities. More importantly, it's about a complete change from rural to urban style in terms of industry structure, employment, living environment and social security. — Li Keqiang
Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. Cesar Chavez Address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1984 — Cesar Chavez
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. — Ronald Reagan
Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair. — Bell Hooks
I think that if the political and social movement groups and organizations that operate in this country today had the same kind of energetic commitment that the medical marijuana people have, many things could change in this country. — John Trudell
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. — Harry S. Truman
The poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order. — Gustavo Gutiérrez
Peace And Justice Quotes
We must establish a new world order based on justice, on equity, and on peace. — Fidel Castro
Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples. — Rigoberta Menchu
Peace is the product of justice and love. — Oscar Romero
Collectively, we have all it takes to create a just and peaceful world, but we must work together and share our talents. We all need one another to find happiness within ourselves and within the world. — Craig Kielburger
If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. — Desmond Tutu
As long as one people sit on another and are deaf to their cry, so long will understanding and peace elude all of us. — Chinua Achebe
Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world. — Jane Addams
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. — George Washington
Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. — Adam Smith
Hate speech it seems to be is been defined by the political left as anything we don't like, anything that violates social justice doctrines, feminism, Black Lives Matter kind of ideology. It is not something that I have ever heard particularly effectively defined. — Milo Yiannopoulos
Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom, and justice, equality of opportunity in industry, in labor unions, schools and colleges, government, politics, and before the law. There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties, or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom. — A. Philip Randolph
I tell young people to prepare themselves as best they can for a world that grows more challenging every day-get the best education they can, and couple that education with real-life experience in social justice work. — Julian Bond
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that. — Chief Joseph
Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create. — Pope John Paul II
I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories... We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust... We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better. — Thurgood Marshall
When women act like women, they are accused of being inferior. When women act like human beings, they are accused of behaving like men. — Simone de Beauvoir
My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. — Paul Robeson
Many are attracted to social service - the rewards are immediate, the gratification quick. But if we have social justice, we won't need social service. — Julian Bond
The myth of integration as propounded under the banner of the liberal ideology must be cracked because it makes people believe that something is being achieved when in reality the artificially integrated circles are a soporfic to the blacks while salving the consciences of the few guilt-stricken whites. — Steven Biko
The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it. — Jimmy Carter
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them. — Gordon Allport
The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it. May the Great Spirit shed light on your path, so that you may never experience the humility that the power of the American government has reduced me to. This is the wish of a man who, in his native forests, was once as proud and bold as yourself. — Black Hawk
What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice. — Thomas Sowell
Nationalism cannot flower if it does not grow in the garden of internationalism. — Sukarno
Let no man of us budge one step, and let slaveholders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears. — David Walker
No person among us desires any other reward for performing a brave and worthy action, but the consciousness of having served his nation. — Joseph Brant
The movement of Pakistan which the Quaid-e-Azam launched was ethical in inspiration and ideological in content. The story of this movement is a story of the ideals of equality, fraternity and social and economic justice struggling against the forces of domination, exploitation, intolerance and tyranny. — Fatima Jinnah
The favorite device of the devil, ancient and modern, is to force a human being into a more or less artificial class, accuse the class of unnamed and unnameable sin, and then damn any individual in the alleged class, however innocent he may be. — W. E. B. Du Bois
All classes of people under social pressure are permeated with a common experience; they are emotionally welded as others cannot be. With them, even ordinary living has epic depth and lyric intensity, and this, their material handicap, is their spiritual advantage. — Alain LeRoy Locke
A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom. — Amiri Baraka
The existence of any pure race with special endowments is a myth, as is the belief that there are races all of whose members are foredoomed to eternal inferiority. — Franz Boas
In Conclusion
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