Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Aristotle states that humans are best when perfected by law and justice but worst when separated from them.
In plain terms
People are good with justice and bad without it.
What can you take from it?
Justice is essential for human goodness.

Where it applies

  • legal systems
  • ethics
  • governance

Putting it to work

  • advocate for justice
  • study ethics
  • participate in lawmaking

Questions to consider

  • Can law make people good?
  • What happens when justice fails?

Another view

Laws without moral virtue can still be oppressive or unjust.

More from Aristotle

  1. He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

    Permalink to quote #14
  2. Money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to th…

    Permalink to quote #16
  3. Nature does nothing uselessly.

    Permalink to quote #13

Related quotes

  1. Like some magistrate grown gray in office, Calmly he contemplates alike the just And unjust, with indifference he notes Evil and good, and knows not wrath nor …

    Aleksandr PushkinAleksandr Pushkin quote #19
  2. Monsters remain human beings. In fact, to reduce them to a subhuman level is to exonerate them of their acts of terrorism and mass murder - just as animals are…

    Andrew SullivanAndrew Sullivan quote #1
  3. Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate, or inani…

    William BlackstoneWilliam Blackstone quote #1