Unjust Laws quotes:

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An unjust law in itself is an act of violence. -- Mahatma Gandhi
An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. -- Mahatma Gandhi
As long as the superstition that people should obey unjust laws exists, so long will slavery exist -- Mahatma Gandhi
A unjust law, is no law at all. -- Martin Luther
There is no justice in following unjust laws. -- Aaron Swartz
One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all. -- Saint Augustine
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? -- Henry David Thoreau
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture. -- Aaron Swartz
A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind. -- Alexis de Tocqueville
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. -- Isaiah
There are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws... What is the difference between the two?...An unjust law is a man-made code that is out of harmony with the moral law. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ' an unjust law is no law at all. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment. -- Mahatma Gandhi
One of the worst things about breaking the law is that it puts one at odds with an indeterminate number of other people. This is among the many corrosive effects of having unjust laws: They tempt peaceful and (otherwise) honest people to lie so as to avoid being punished for behavior that is ethically blameless. -- Sam Harris
A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. -- Martin Luther
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. -- Noah Webster
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman empire. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law. -- Robert A. Heinlein
Unjust laws aren't laws at all. -- Saint Augustine
There are unjust laws as there are unjust men. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them? -- Henry David Thoreau
We have a responsibility to disobey and violate unjust rules and laws. -- Bryant McGill
If laws are unjust, they must be continually broken until they are altered. -- Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin
Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law. -- Henry David Thoreau
Prayer is of no avail. The lightning falls on the just and the unjust in accordance with natural laws. -- Robert Green Ingersoll
Just because someone gets arrested doesn't mean what they are doing is wrong. Some laws are unfair and unjust. -- Tim Robbins
Unjust laws have to be fought ideologically; they cannot be fought or corrected by means of mere disobedience and futile martyrdom. -- Ayn Rand
Legislatures have no right to set up an inquisition and examine into the private opinions of men. Test-laws are useless and ineffectual, unjust and tyrannical. -- Oliver Ellsworth
We have the means to change the laws we find unjust or onerous. We cannot, as citizens, pick and choose the laws we will or will not obey. -- Ronald Reagan
One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust ... is in reality expressing the highest respect for law ... We will not obey your evil laws. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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