Albert Camus Quotes

It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

When law becomes despotic, morals are relaxed, and vice versa.

Justice is such a fine thing that we cannot pay too dearly for it.

Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world.

Do we exert our own liberties without injury to others - we exert them justly; do we exert them at the expense of others - unjustly. And, in thus doing, we step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain threshold of tyranny.

Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.

It’s often safer to be in chains than to be free.

Openness is the natural enemy of arbitrariness.

What are kingdoms without justice but large bands of robbers?

The strength of this nation is weakened more by those who suppress the freedom of others than by those who are allowed freely to think and act as their consciences dictate.

There is no such thing as justice—in or out of court.

I think that democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves, they will seek it, cherish it, and view any privation of it with regret. But for equality, their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.

A government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

… the mortal enemy of liberty

Justice can never be done in the midst of injustice.

Any appeasement of tyranny is treason.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime - namely, repressive justice.

If men are not kept straight by duty, they must be by fear. The more they are kept by fear, the less they are free.

England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the step of Freedom

Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due.

Justice is that virtue that gives every man his due.