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Equal Justice Quotes

Following is a collection of quotes pertaining to equal justice. They are here for you to take and use. Additional quotes may be found on the NLADA website at http://www.nlada.org/News/Equal_Justice_Quotes

• "The first duty of society is justice."
  - Alexander Hamilton
  
  
• "Without equal access to the law, the system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but it places it in the hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever created."
  - Reginald Heber Smith, Justice and the Poor, 1919
  
  
• "There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has."
  - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, 1964
  
  
• "How can it be, in a country as strong and rich as this one, that tens of thousands of Americans who need legal representation are turned away every year because their government won't support the very program designed to help them?"
  - Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)
  
  
• "The movement continues towards the goal of 'equal justice' and its pathway -- unfettered access."
  - Alex Forger, former LSC President
  
  
• "But more than anything else, we have learned that legal assistance for the poor, when properly provided, is one of the most constructive ways to help them help themselves."
  - President Richard Nixon, 1974
  
  
• "Equality before the law in a true democracy is a matter of right. It cannot be a matter of charity or of favor or of grace or of discretion."
  - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge, sometime in the late 19th century
  
  
• "Service is the rent we pay for living. It is not something to do in your spare time; it is the very purpose of life."
  - Marion Wright Edelman, Founder, Children's Defense Fund
  
  
• "Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building, it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists...it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status."
  - Lewis Powell, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice (ret.), During
  his tenure as President of the American Bar Association
  
  
• "To withhold the equal protection of the laws, is to undermine the entire structure and threaten it with collapse.... To deny law or justice to any person is, in actual effect, to outlaw them by stripping them of their only protection. It is for such reasons that freedom and equality of justice are essential to a democracy and that denial of justice is the short cut to anarchy. "
  - Reginald Heber Smith, 1919
  
  
• "We at the Bureau have the most exciting and satisfying jobs in the world. In a society that stresses individual achievement - where you pull yourself up by your bootstraps - the Legal Aid Bureau helps those without boots. By providing access to justice to tens of thousands of Marylanders each year, Legal Aid attorneys and support staff bring equity and stability to society."
  - Wilhelm Joseph, Director of the Legal Aid Bureau in Maryland
  
  
• "No organization of lawyers can long survive which has not for its primary object the protection of the public. Laws are not made for the benefit of the few. They should be those rules of conduct prescribed by the people themselves, through their properly constituted representatives, for the equal protection of the rights of society in the aggregate. They should apply with equal force to the rich and poor alike, and to the protection of those rights the legal profession must apply itself with integrity, industry and faith."
  - Roberts P. Hudson,
  1st president of the State Bar of Michigan
  
  
• "Equal justice is a dream. We must make it a reality."
  - John Cummiskey (a Michigan hero)
  
  
• "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give."
  - Winston Churchill
  
  
• "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
  - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  
  
• "If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice."
  - Judge Learned Hand
  
• "Justice will not come until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured."
  - Thucydides, Greek Philosopher

Disclaimer

The materials contained on this website are for information and educational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice.  Also please note that Legal Aid of North Carolina does not provide legal assistance by E-mail. Contact your Legal Aid of North Carolina office or a private attorney if you need to speak to an attorney regarding your particular situation.
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Mission Statement

Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity.