The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that bad individuals seek power for its own sake, driven by a desire for injustice.
John Rawls emphasizes the motivations behind negative human behavior in this quote. He suggests that those who are considered 'bad' not only seek power arbitrarily but are also fueled by a deep-seated admiration for injustice, indicating a moral failing that transcends mere ambition. This serves as a reflection on the darker aspects of human nature and the ethical implications of power dynamics in society.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about political corruption and ethics in leadership.
The perspective of eternity is not a perspective from a certain place beyond the world, nor the point of view of a transcendent being; rather it is a certain form of thought and feeling that rational persons can adopt within the world ... Purity of heart, if one could attain it, would be to see clearly and to act with grace and self-command from this point of view.
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions.
The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.
The naturally advantaged are not to gain merely because they are more gifted, but only to cover the costs of training and education and for using their endowments in ways that help the less fortunate as well.
The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.
Many of our most serious conflicts are conflicts within ourselves. Those who suppose their judgements are always consistent are unreflective or dogmatic.
When journalists and politicians speak of a dwindling middle class that's under economic assault and a poor community that's getting bigger, they're talking about Ferguson. Independent of the racial demographics and dynamics of Ferguson, Missouri, there's a 'Ferguson' near you.
One important theme is the extent to which one can ever correct an error, especially outside any frame of religious forgiveness. All of us have done something we regret - how we manage to remove that from our conscience, or whether that's even possible, interested me.
Age steals away all things, even the mind.
A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.