the public sphere is as consistently based on the law of equality as the private sphere is based on the law of universal difference and differentiation. Equality, in contrast to all that is involved in mere existence, is not given us, but is the result of human organization insofar as it is guided by the principle of justice. We are not born equal; we become equal as members of a group on the strength of our decision to guarantee ourselves mutually equal rights.

For the possibilities of being different from what one is are infinite. Once one has negated oneself, however, there are no longer any particular choices.

Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future.

Although tyranny...may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people.

All political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them.

The extreme form of power is All against One, the extreme form of violence is One against All.

What is the subject of our thought? Experience! Nothing else!