John of Salisbury Quotes on Justice
John of Salisbury was an English humanist scholar, secretary to two archbishops of Canterbury including the martyred Thomas Becket, and finally bishop of Chartres. This page collects quotes attributed to John of Salisbury on the topic of justice, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to John of Salisbury:
“A republic is a body whose head is the prince and whose soul is religion.”
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Attributed to John of Salisbury:
“Tyranny begins when the prince serves himself rather than the laws.”
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“Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant. Bk. 4, ch. 1”
Est ergo tyranni et principis hæc differentia sola, quod hic legi obtemperat, et ejus arbitrio populum regit, cujus se credit ministrum. -
“Law is the gift of God, the model of equity, a standard of justice, a likeness of the divine will, the guardian of well-being, a bond of union and solidarity between peoples, a rule defining duties, a barrier against the vices and the destroyer thereof, a punishment of violence and all wrongdoing. Bk. 8, ch. 17”
Lex donum Dei est, æquitatis forma, norma justitiæ, divinæ voluntatis imago, salutis custodia, unio et consolidatio populorum, regula officiorum, exclusio et exterminatio vitiorum, violentiæ et totius injuriæ pœna.