The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.
Interpretation
Justice should be based on fairness without bias or knowledge of one's own social standing.
John Rawls' quote emphasizes the idea that the principles of justice should be determined without any knowledge of personal circumstances or biases. This 'veil of ignorance' forces individuals to consider the fairness of their decisions and structures, leading to a more equitable society where rights and responsibilities are allocated without favoritism or self-interest.
In practice
During a discussion on ethics, one might quote Rawls to highlight the importance of impartiality in decision-making.
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.
The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice.
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions.
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.
Our collective future depends on opening channels of compassion, acceptance, and understanding of others.
His words even imply that philanthropy has deeper depths than is generally realized. The great emotions of compassion and mercy are traced to Him; there is more to human deeds than the doers are aware. He identified every act of kindness as an expression of sympathy with Himself. All kindnesses are either done explicitly or implicitly in His name, or they are refused explicitly or implicitly in His name.
There's a phenomenology of being sick, one that depends on temperament, personal history, and the culture which we live in.
Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.
Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Those who, like the beasts, have no such Hope, pass their old age shrouded with an inward gloom.
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