"'But whom do I treat unjustly,' you say, 'by keeping what is my own?' Tell me, what is your own? What did you bring into this life? From where did you receive it? It is as if someone were to take the first seat in the theater, then bar everyone else from attending, so that one person alone enjoys what is offered for the benefit of all in common — this is what the rich do. They seize common goods before others have the opportunity, then claim them as their own by right of preemption. For if we all took only what was necessary to satisfy our own needs, giving the rest to those who lack, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, and no one would be in need."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Basil of Caesarea, I Will Tear Down My Barns, in Saint Basil on Social Justice, edited and translated by C. P. Schroeder (2009), p. 69
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Social_justice
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Social justice
26 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Social justice →
Related Quotes
"We are fighting to impose a higher social justice. The others are fighting to maintain the privileges of caste and cl…"
"Fascism establishes the real equality of individuals before the nation… the object of the regime in the economic fiel…"
"We've been talking mainly about the problem of social justice within one society. The problem is much more difficult …"
"Islam prescribes the bases of social justice. It insures that the poor have claims on the possessions of the rich, an…"
"Contesting power [...] is inevitable in the pursuit of justice and dignity for the marginalised and excluded."
"At this moment, when the foundational values that defined the 20th century are under stress and the social contract i…"
"This is the beginning of a social movement in fact and not in pronouncements. We seek our basic, God-given rights as …"
"We are suffering. We have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause. We have suffered unnum…"
"I am not boasting when I say to you that I know the pulse of the people. I know it better than all your newspaper men…"
"Society should treat all equally well who have deserved equally well of it, that is, who have deserved equally well a…"