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.
Everything you have is to give. Thou art a phenomenon of philosophy and an unfortunate man.
In the law of God, there is no statute of limitations.
Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.
Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.
Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before. Some day, I doubt not, we shall arrive at an understanding of the evolution of the aesthetic faculty; but all the understanding in the world will neither increase nor diminish the force of the intuition that this is beautiful and that is ugly.
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