#institutions

Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests. ↗

— John Rawls

#individuals #justice #liberalism #philosophy #social-institutions

We differ on several issues. And this may include settlement, the release of prisoners, the wall closing institutions in Jerusalem. ↗

— Mahmoud Abbas

#differ #include #institutions #issues #jerusalem

I can create institutions, but I can't rewrite the chips in people's heads. ↗

— Paddy Ashdown

#create #heads #i #i can #institutions

The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society. ↗

— Paddy Ashdown

#civil #civil society #created #failure #greatest

A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#critic #cure #go #house #institutions

Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause. ↗

— Jack Henry Abbott

#contracted #effect #i #illness #institutions

FOR a long time the conviction has been dimly felt in the community that, without prejudice to existing institutions, the legal day of weekly rest might be employed to advantage for purposes affecting the general good. ↗

— Felix Adler

#affecting #been #community #conviction #day

If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do well for my family, although I must abandon my life to its success, and undergo many sad perplexities and perhaps never see again my own beloved America. ↗

— John James Audubon

#again #although #america #beloved #bodies

Our choice of a reform framework dictated that we looked at the fundamental assumptions that had driven Nigeria's economy, society and policy hitherto and to seek ways of either abandoning or transcending those assumptions and their supporting institutions. ↗

— Ibrahim Babangida

#assumptions #choice #dictated #driven #economy

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#civilization #creeds #deadly #first #history