130 Quotes by Amartya Sen

A society can be Pareto optimal and still perfectly disgusting.

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.

It is, in particular, important to distinguish between the inclusionary role of identity and the exclusionary force of separatism.

While we cannot live without history, we need not live within it either.

Nor let us be resentful when others differ from us. For all men have hearts, and each heart has its own leanings. Their right is our wrong, and our right is their wrong.

The increasing tendency towards seeing people in terms of one dominant ‘identity’ (‘this is your duty as an American’, ‘you must commit these acts as a Muslim’, or ‘as a Chinese you should give priority to this national engagement’) is not only an imposition of an external and arbitrary priority, but also the denial of an important liberty of a person who can decide on their respective loyalties to different groups (to all of which he or she belongs).

إن أسباب التطرف ليست دينية بل سياسية.

What goes wrong is the system in which the success of the educational enterprise is judged by the performance of a small (and largely self-contained) elite, ignoring the rest, and in which there is remarkable social insensitivity to the unfairness and injustice of such gross disparities, contributing to the persistence of a hugely stratified Indian society.

التعصب تجاه معتقدات وديانات الآخرين لا يساعد على توليد الثقة في سماحة معتقد ودين المرء نفسه.