Arohi Publications
Rawls is famous for his ideas on justice, fairness, and the “veil of ignorance.” Here are 10 notable quotes from his works:
- “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.”
- From A Theory of Justice (1971), emphasizing justice as foundational to society.
- “The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.”
- Also from A Theory of Justice, introducing his famous thought experiment for impartial decision-making.
- “Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.”
- Highlighting individual rights over collective utility, from A Theory of Justice.
- “The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts.”
- From A Theory of Justice, distinguishing natural conditions from institutional justice.
- “A just society is a society that if you knew everything about it, you’d be willing to enter it in a random place.”
- A succinct summary of his fairness principle, often paraphrased from his work.
- “The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice.”
- From A Theory of Justice, on the conditional acceptance of imperfection.
- “Many of our most serious conflicts are conflicts within ourselves. Those who suppose their judgments are always consistent are unreflective or dogmatic.”
- From Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2001), reflecting on human complexity.
- “Inequalities are permissible only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society.”
- The essence of his “difference principle” from A Theory of Justice.
- “The perspective of eternity is not a perspective from a certain place beyond the world, nor the point of view of a transcendent being; rather it is a certain form of thought and feeling that rational persons can adopt within the world.”
- From A Theory of Justice, on moral reasoning.
- “In a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.”
- From A Theory of Justice, stressing the permanence of basic rights.
These quotes encapsulate Rawls’ core ideas about justice, fairness, and societal structure.
