Justice and Equality

The happiness of society is the end of government.

A government of laws, and not of men.

The law, in all vicissitudes of government … will preserve a steady undeviating course … On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.

Truth never damages a cause that is just.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man?… The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.

America free Tom Mooney America save the Spanish Loyalists America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die America I am the Scottsboro boys.

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose, Speaking clearly and most severely, Law is as I’ve told you before, Law is as you know I suppose, Law is but let me explain it once more, Law is The Law.

But from each crime are born bullets that will one day seek out in you where the heart lies.

Hurrah for revolution and more cannon-shot! A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot. Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again! The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.

The sin ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one.

As some day it may happen that a victim must be found, I’ve got a little list—I’ve got a little list. Of society offenders who might well be underground, And who never would be missed—who never would be missed.

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne— Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.

They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak.

No fetters in the Bay State—no slave upon our land!

God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear the morning brings The outrage of the poor.

Such hath it been—shall be—beneath the sun The many still must labor for the one.

For a’ that and a’ that, It’s coming yet, for a’ that, That man to man the world o’er Shall brothers be for a’ that.

One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale, Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs, And solid pudding against empty praise.