Star Trek Quotes On Society and Justice...

"A cage is a cage, Jim."
Stardate: 2715.1

"Interesting. Your Earth people glorify organized violence for forty centuries, but you imprison those who employ it privately."
Stardate: 2715.1

"I speak of rights! A machine has none. A man must! My client has the right to face his accuser. And if you do not grant him that right, you have brought us down to the level of the machine."
Stardate: 2947.3

"These words were not written only for the Yangs, but for the Kohms as well. They must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing."
Stardate: Unknown

"Freed? Were we free to be men? Free to be husbands and fathers? Free to live our lives in equality and dignity?"
Stardate: 5730.2

"We have learned to detect the seeds of criminal behavior. Capital punishment, in our world, is no longer considered a justifiable deterrent."
Stardate: 41255.6

"There can be no justice, so long as laws are absolute. Life itself is an exercise in exceptions. When has justice ever been as simple as a rulebook?"
Stardate: 41255.6

"No being is so important that he can usurp the rights of another."
Stardate: 41601.3

"The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proved again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilisation, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."
Stardate: Unknown.

"People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We've eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We have grown out of our infancy."
Stardate: 41986.0

"Matter of internal security. The age-old cry of the oppressor."
Stardate: 43489.2

"I live in an ideal culture. There's no need for your kind of violence. We've proven that."
Stardate: 43510.7

"The difference between generals and terrorists is only the difference between winners and losers. If you win you are called a general. If you lose…"
Stardate: 43510.7

“There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders.”
Stardate: 43657.0

"The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged."
Stardate: 43685.2

"We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, is all ancient history. Then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly, it threatens to start all over again."
Stardate: 44769.2

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Stardate: 44769.2

"Because it's been given a name by a member of my crew doesn't mean it's not a Borg. Because it's young doesn't mean that it's innocent. It is what it is."
Stardate: 45854.2

"Poverty was eliminated on Earth a long time ago, and a lot of other things disappeared with it. Hopelessness, despair, cruelty."
Stardate: 46001.3

"You cannot explain away a wantonly immoral act because you think that it is connected to some higher purpose."
Stardate: 46071.6

"Benkarans are ten times more likely to be executed for their crimes than Nygeans."
Stardate: Unknown