Rawls, John

"Citizens should be educated to understand both the reasons for social institutions and their own role in maintaining them."

"Justice between peoples requires that well-ordered societies respect the autonomy and equality of other societies."

"The capacity to develop and pursue one's own conception of the good life is central to human dignity."

"A just basic structure ensures that citizens can support themselves through meaningful participation in the political economy."

"The original position models the principles that free and equal citizens would rationally accept to govern their social world."

"Political liberalism separates questions of justice from questions about the ultimate worth of different ways of life."

"Fair procedures are important not only instrumentally but intrinsically because they respect the standing of citizens as moral equals."

"Justice requires that the basic structure be designed to serve the interests of all citizens, not merely the privileged few."

"The duty to respect the constitutional order is grounded in the duty to respect fellow citizens as free and equal persons."

"In a well-ordered society, citizens understand that the basic structure is a joint undertaking among free and equal persons."

"Justice demands that we regulate property and wealth not only for efficiency but to ensure fair opportunities for all."

"Political legitimacy in a democracy depends on public justification that appeals to reasons all citizens could reasonably accept."

"The reasonable pluralism of democratic societies means that no single comprehensive doctrine can serve as the basis for justice."

"Citizens must develop a sense of justice—a desire to act fairly and respect the legitimate claims of others."

"A just society protects not only individual rights but also the conditions necessary for the development of human capacities."

"The difference principle reflects the idea that social and economic inequalities must benefit the most disadvantaged."

"Justice as fairness provides a conception of legitimate political authority appropriate for democracies where citizens are free and equal."

"Rational agents in the original position would choose principles that guarantee equal basic liberties for all."

"The concept of the well-ordered society models an ideal toward which just democracies should aspire."

"Political justice requires that power be distributed and exercised in ways that respect the status of all as political equals."

"A just constitutional order establishes procedures that citizens can understand and regard as fair regardless of their particular interests."

"The basic structure shapes citizens' life prospects so fundamentally that it must be designed with special care."

"Citizens in a constitutional democracy should be educated to understand how their basic institutions serve justice."

"Justice requires that natural talents be viewed as a common asset whose benefits are distributed fairly among all members of society."

"The stability of a just society depends on citizens developing a sense of justice that becomes part of their personal character."

"Fair terms of social cooperation must be ones that all citizens could regard as justified by appeal to public reason."

"A just society acknowledges that reasonable citizens may hold different comprehensive doctrines while sharing principles of political justice."

"Political legitimacy requires that the exercise of governmental power be justifiable to citizens as free and equal persons."

"Justice demands that we concern ourselves not only with how goods are distributed but with how institutions affect citizens' self-respect."

"The principles of justice apply first and foremost to the basic structure of society, not to individual transactions."