“Properly understood, then, the desire to act justly derives in part from the desire to express most fully what we are or can be, namely free and equal rational beings with the liberty to choose.”
Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter IV, Section 40, p. 256
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John Rawls 63
American political philosopher 1921–2002Related quotes

“The truth doesn't die. The desire for liberty cannot be fully suppressed.”
1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin

Discourses on the Condition of the Great
The Child from the Sea (1970), Book 2, Chapter 1.5

Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as translated by J.H.McDonald (1996) http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html [Public domain translation]
Context: The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name.
The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.

“If I had a desire, it would be to be free from desire.”
Rolling Stone interview (June 1970)
Source: From a "Race of Masters" to a "Master Race": 1948 to 1848