80 Injustice Quotes For Those Moments When Life is Unfair

By Danielle Dahl | Published September 20, 2022

These injustice quotes shed light on this problem and will inspire you to stand for what is right.

It is usually easier to spot an injustice when it is happening to us or someone we care about.

However, injustice is all around daily.

We commonly describe it as the absence of fairness or justice.

It is that feeling of wondering why good things seem to happen to horrible people while you struggle, knowing that you do everything you can to be a kind and decent person.

It just doesn’t seem right.

You might also like to read these poetic justice quotes.

These quotes will help shed light on what injustice looks like.

They also illustrate why it is important to stand up for others.

Many of these quotes offer a thoughtful perspective on the concept of injustice.

Of course, there is plenty to be said about injustice from the government and how people’s greed and ambition contribute to others being treated unfairly.

Each of these quotes is a powerful reminder that injustice is a real problem we face.

Don’t forget to check out these equality quotes about the importance of how we treat each other.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here.

Injustice quotes on what it means to be unfair

1. “People don’t always get what they deserve in this world.” ― Lemony Snicket

2. “The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.” ― George Carlin

You will also enjoy our article on corruption quotes.

3. “Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash: your picture in the paper nor money in the bank either. Just refuse to bear them.” ― William Faulkner

You will also enjoy our article on Blind Side quotes.

4. “Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.” ― Samuel Johnson

5. “And yet the feeling of injustice itself turned out to be strangely physical. Even realer, in a way, than her hurting, smelling, sweating body. Injustice had a shape, a weight, and a temperature, and a texture, and a very bad taste.” ― Jonathan Franzen

6. “Justice doesn’t mean the absence of injustice, it means the presence of the determination to stand up to injustice.” ― Abhijit Naskar

7. “Pain and tragedy and injustice happen – they happen to us all. I’d like to believe it’s what you choose to do after such an experience that matters the most – that truly changes your life forever.” ― Anthony Ray Hinton

8. “I welcome injustice because injustice gives me something to strive for. We need the darkness, for it allows the light to shine. God’s greatest gift to mankind is Satan because evil gives us something to strive against.” ― Jan Golembiewski

Injustice quotes that will inspire you to fight

9. “I am a person who is unhappy with things as they stand. We cannot accept the world as it is. Each day we should wake up foaming at the mouth because of the injustice of things.” ― Hugo Claus

10. “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” ― Robert F. Kennedy

11. “Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have to agree with people and their beliefs to defend them from injustice.” ― Bryant McGill

12. “It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri

13. “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” ― Elie Wiesel

14. “It takes great courage to open one’s heart and mind to the tremendous injustice and suffering in our world.” ― Vincent A. Gallagher

15. “The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice.” ― Martha Gellhorn

16. “Everything human beings can imagine has been thrown at injustice, and injustice just absorbs it and enlarges.” ― Greg Baxter

17. “Stand up to injustice, even if you stand alone.” ― Suzy Kassem

18. “Change can only be brought about when we have the courage to speak about the injustices we see.” ― Erin Thorp

19. “The human voice is still the most paramount vessel or weapon to use, to uphold justice and to protest against injustice.” ― Sunday Adelaja

Meaningful injustice quotes

20. “Man cannot be freed by the same injustice that enslaved it.” ― Pierce Brown

21. “I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.” ― Charles Bukowski

22. “Talking about justice, doing injustice is indeed unfair conduct and hypocrisy.” ― Ehsan Sehgal

23. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

24. “If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.” ― Ernesto Che Guevara

25. “Men use thought only as authority for their injustice and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.” ― Voltaire

26. “Injustice on one life is injustice on all lives.” ― Abhijit Naskar

27. “Injustice, in the end, produces independence.” ― Voltaire

28. “If thou sustain injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it.” ― Democritus

29. “There is no justice to be had in wanton blind destruction, just more injustice.” ― C.A.A. Savastano

30. “When your bones ignite and your blood boils at the sight of misery, injustice, and hate, that’s when you are truly born as a human.” ― Abhijit Naskar

31. “… I never yield to injustice if I can help it…” ― Louisa May Alcott

32. “You cannot right injustice by injustice.” ― Geraldine Brooks

33. “There were countless injustices and difficulties in this world, but small points of light too, where the darkness was held back.” ― Alexander McCall Smith

Government and legal injustice quotes

34. “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” ― Charles-Louis de Secondat

35. “Rather than justice for all, we are evolving into a system of justice for those who can afford it. We have banks that are not only too big to fail but too big to be held accountable.” ― Joseph E. Stiglitz

36. “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” ― Thomas Jefferson

37. “You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.” ― Marian Wright Edelman

38. “If the system turns away from the abuses inflicted on the guilty, then who can be next but the innocents?” ― Michael Connelly

39. “The trouble was, no one thought about the victims anymore. It was all about human rights for the criminal. Injustice was the name of the game now.” ― Sibel Hodge

40. “So many wars have been fought and so much injustice has been perpetrated because we’ve banished others from our group and therefore our circle of concern.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

41. “When you see injustice among the nations, you will find out that the root cause is covetousness.” ― Sunday Adelaja

42. “… a broken nation, under siege, divisible, without liberty and injustice for a lot…” ― Jeffrey G. Duarte

Injustice quotes about ambition and money

43. “Money can buy the necessary police order. Justice is sold to the highest bidder.” ― Rohinton Mistry

44. “Lands of great discoveries are also lands of great injustices.” ― Ivo Andric

45. “Yes, the truth is that men’s ambition and their desire to make money are among the most frequent causes of deliberate acts of injustice.” ― Aristotle

46. “My own attitude to the innumerable injustices of life has always been a philosophical one, especially when they have tended to operate in my favor.” ― Auberon Waugh

47. “One should never underestimate how callous or indifferent people can be when it’s in their interest to be so.” ― Marty Rubin

48. “Excessive, unmatched greed is the oxygen of every abusive, manipulative, destructive, narcissistic Machiavellian power players of today’s kakistocracy, kleptocracy, injustice, corruption, and impunity.” ― Angelica Hopes
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of greed quotes to curb any selfish tendencies.

49. “… the richest tenth of the worlds’ adults owned 85 percent of global assets in the year 2000. The poorest half, in contrast, owned barely 1 percent. … Pause for a moment, to resist letting those numbers drift by unconsidered.” ― Cynthia Moe-Lobeda

50. “At the root of every form of ungodliness, injustice, nepotism, selfishness, every rivalry, and competitive jealousy, is the monster called greed.” ― Sunday Adelaja

51. “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire

52. “Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.” – Honore de Balzac

More injustice quotes and sayings

53. “If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” – Charles Darwin

54. “Rage — whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders’ insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us — is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.” – Bonnie Myotai Treace

55. “We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.” – Lydia Maria Child

56. “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.” – George Orwell

57. “No amount of me trying to explain myself was doing any good. I didn’t even know what was going on inside of me, so how could I have explained it to them?” – Sierra D. Waters

58. “Always seek justice, but love only mercy. To love justice and hate mercy is but a doorway to more injustice.” – Criss Jami

59. “Love and freedom are such hideous words. So many cruelties have been done in their name.” – Joseph O’Connor

60. “The world was fucked up. It was hard to say how exactly, but we could feel it. There was injustice, lots of it, we saw it as a dull shape coming into focus.” – Michelle Tea

Thought-provoking injustice quotes

61. “A rule without exceptions is an instrument capable of doing mischief to the innocent and bringing grief — as well as injustice — to those who should gain exemptions from the rule’s functioning.” ― Derrick Bell

62. “If people in the position of power are not made to be accountable, then, ungodliness, injustice and oppression will continue to be the order of the day in the society.” ― Sunday Adelaja

63. “How difficult is it for one body to feel the injustice wheeled at another? Are the tensions, the recognitions, the disappointments, and the failures that exploded in the riots too foreign?” ― Claudia Rankine

64. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” ― Desmond Tutu

65. As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.” ― Nelson Mandela

66. If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.” ― Henry David Thoreau

67. The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” ― Lyndon B. Johnson

68. “One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.” ― Socrates

69. “Peace does not mean just to stop wars, but also to stop oppression and injustice.” ― Tawakkol Karman

70. “Delay in justice is injustice.” ― Walter Savage Landor

Injustice Quotes To Fight For Justice

71. “Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant.” ― Henry David Thoreau

72. “Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.” ― Billy Graham

73. “Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world.” ― Che Guevara

74. “Let us give practical recognition to the injustices of the past, by building a future based on equality and social justice.” ― Nelson Mandela

75. “If you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.” ― Thomas Aquinas

76. “Every social injustice is not only cruel, but it is economic waste.” ― William Feather

77. “Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.” ― Robert Frost

78. “Whosoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whosoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.” ― Marcus Aurelius

79. “No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.” ― Aristotle

80. “To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.” ― Plato

What did you learn from these injustice quotes?

Personal injustice is not the only thing to watch out for.

Other times it is a more blatant and overwhelming societal injustice that needs to be corrected.

In those moments, when we decide to stand up for the rights of others, we can discover who we are.

Will you be the person who makes an impact with your actions?

Even things that seem small or inconsequential can have a lasting impact on the lives of others.

My 16-year-old daughter went to protest for George Floyd with a friend of hers.

There were many young people there, and I admired their courage to stand up for the right thing.