Careful Words

just (v.)

just (adv.)

just (adj.)

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

James Shirley (1596-1666): Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. Sc. 3.

  O eloquent, just, and mightie Death! whom none could advise, thou hast perswaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawne together all the farre stretchèd greatnesse, all the pride, crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): Historie of the World. Book v. Part 1.

Oft times nothing profits more

Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right

Well manag'd.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 571.

Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men;

Unless there be who think not God at all.

John Milton (1608-1674): Samson Agonistes. Line 293.

'T is education forms the common mind:

Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 149.

Who battled for the True, the Just.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): In Memoriam. lvi. Stanza 5.

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;

Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

The best of what we do and are,

Just God, forgive!

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Thoughts suggested on the Banks of the Nith.

  He was a good man, and a just.

New Testament: Luke xxiii. 50.

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,

And without sneering teach the rest to sneer;

Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,

Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 201.

Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just!

Shining nowhere but in the dark;

What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust,

Could man outlook that mark!

Henry Vaughan (1621-1695): They are all gone.

Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,—

A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Truth. Line 327.

How shall we rank thee upon glory's page,

Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage?

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): To Thomas Hume.

  The memory of the just is blessed.

Old Testament: Proverbs x. 7.

  The spirits of just men made perfect.

New Testament: Hebrews xii. 23.

Our cause is just, our union is perfect.

John Dickinson (1732-1808): Declaration on taking up Arms in 1775.

  The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Old Testament: Proverbs iv. 18.

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,

Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

The sweet remembrance of the just

Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust.

Tate And Brady: Psalm cxii. 6.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices

Make instruments to plague us.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act v. Sc. 3.

Whatever is, is in its causes just.

John Dryden (1631-1701): oedipus. Act iii. Sc. 1.