Wisdom Quotes

"The thirst for some final solution is the greatest enemy of rational thought."

"I believe in trying to understand the views of those with whom I disagree."

"To understand why someone holds a belief, you must first understand what they stand to lose if that belief is false."

"Knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge of what is worth knowing."

"I have always believed that the purpose of thought is not to solve problems but to understand them better."

"The human being is the only animal that asks why. This is both our greatest gift and our greatest curse."

"Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as we think about it, it loses the power to offend us."

"Language is not merely a means of communication; it is a mode of life."

"We cannot live without myths but we must live critically with them."

"Humility is not weakness but the recognition of human finitude."

"The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk."

"The particular must be grasped through its relation to the universal."

"Mediation is the fundamental principle through which contradictions achieve resolution."

"What seems irrational often conceals a deeper rationality upon examination."

"Individuality achieves truth only when it overcomes its isolation through relation to the universal."

"The universal must be incarnate in particularity to have any reality whatsoever."

"We must distinguish between what makes a distribution just and what makes a distribution good."

"Justice is not determined by what produces the best overall outcome."

"We cannot extract principles of justice from aggregate welfare considerations alone."

"Moral philosophy must recognize persons as separate beings with their own lives to lead."

"Justice is fundamentally about respecting the rights that persons possess."

"Each person's life has value independent of its contribution to collective welfare."

"Rights protect people from being used as mere means to social or collective ends."

"Citizens possess two moral powers: the capacity for a sense of justice and for a conception of the good."

"Justice must account for the burdens of judgment that make disagreement inevitable."

"Citizens' good involves pursuing their conception of the good life within fair constraints."

"The burdens of judgment explain why reasonable persons disagree about the good life."

"The original position helps us identify principles no one could rationally reject."

"Compromise is not a betrayal of principles, but a recognition of reality."

"To understand another person's worldview is the beginning of wisdom."