74 Quotes by John Rawls

Ideally a just constitution would be a just procedure arranged to insure a just outcome.

The fundamental criterion for judging any procedure is the justice of its likely results.

A just system must generate its own support.

We may suppose that everyone has in himself the whole form of a moral conception.

If A were not allowed his better position, B would be even worse off than he is.

No one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society.

Clearly when the liberties are left unrestricted they collide with one another.

There are two kinds of comprehensive doctrines, religious and secular. Those of religious faith will say I give a veiled argument for secularism, and the latter will say I give a veiled argument for religion. I deny both. Each side presumes the basic ideas of constitutional democracy, so my suggestion is that we can make our political arguments in terms of public reason. Then we stand on common ground. That's how we can understand each other and cooperate.

Justice is the first virtue of social institutions,