Justice, not expedience, must be the guiding light. The orator must fix his eye on the polestar of justice, and plough straight thither. The moment he glances toward expediency, he falls from his high estate.
Interpretation
Justice should guide decision-making rather than convenience or expedience.
In this quote, John Peter Altgeld emphasizes the importance of justice as the foundational principle for action and oratory. He warns that when one prioritizes expediency or convenience over true justice, they compromise their integrity and moral standing, leading to a downfall from their noble goals and ideals.
In practice
During a public speech advocating for civil rights, this quote could be used to emphasize the importance of prioritizing justice over political convenience.
You ask whether a woman should be paid the same wages as man when she does the same work? To this, there can be but one answer. If she does the same quantity and quality of work under the same conditions as a man, simple justice requires that she should be paid the same. wages. To deny her this is to deny her justice.
The doctrine that might makes right has covered the earth with misery. While it crushes the weak, it also destroys the strong. Every deceit, every cruelty, every wrong, reaches back sooner or later and crushes its author. Justice is moral health, bringing happiness, wrong is moral disease, bringing mortal death.
Justice remains the tool of a few powerful interests; legal interpretations will continue to be made to suit the convenience of the oppressor powers.
That's what justice represents to me - it's about empowerment of the people.
Industrialised countries must take the responsibility of helping poorer countries in the climate change action plan.
Once you've acquired a criminal record, you can be discriminated against legally in employment, housing, and access to education and public benefits. You're relegated to a permanent second-class status, forever a 'criminal.' Inflicting this amount of unnecessary pain and suffering is not cheap.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.
In America, an acquittal doesn't mean you're innocent, it means you beat the rap. My clients lose even when they win.
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