Justice is the first virtue of social institutions.

We must choose for others as we have reason to believe they would choose for themselves if they were at the age of reason and deciding rationally.

An injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice.

The hazards of the generalized prisoner's dilemma are removed by the match between the right and the good.

It is of first importance that the military be subordinate to civilian government

The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality.

Political philosophy is realistically utopian when it extends what are ordinarily thought to be the limits of practicable political possibility and, in so doing, reconciles us to our political and social condition. Our hope for the future of our society rests on the belief that the social world allows a reasonably just Society of Peoples.