Justice

[turningjapanese]

What is justice? Giving water to trees.
What is injustice? To give water to thorns.
Justice consists in bestowing bounty in its proper place,
not on every root that will absorb water.

-Mathnawi [V, 1089-1090]

From "Jewels of Remembrance, " by Rumi, selected and translated by
Camille and Kabir Helminski, © 1996.

[turningjapanese]

Regally the waves were hurling themselves upon the rocks, each deep-blue curve crested by whitest foam. Seeing this sight for the first time, Nasrudin was momentarily overwhelmed.
Then he went near to the seashore, took a little water in his cupped hand and tasted it.
"Why," said the Mulla, "to think that something with such pretensions is not worth drinking."

as collected by Idries Shah