“If a theory of justice is to guide reasoned choice of policies, strategies or institutions, then the identification of fully just social arrangements is neither necessary nor sufficient.”

“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore 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.”

“Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.”

“Capitalism is neither a person nor an institution. It neither wills nor chooses. It is a logic at work through a mode of production: a blind, obstinate logic of accumulation.”

“In either mythology, ancient Irish or modern Jungian, we see the struggle to arrive at a workable arrangement with the forces of Nature, so that we neither try to triumph over her nor naively succumb to her. The first strategy leads to a sense of inflation and emotional sterility, the second to madness.”

“A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security”