Quotes

All over the world people are struggling for lives that are worthy of their human dignity.

Martha C. Nussbaum; Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach (2013)

Economic growth, while a part of wise public policy, is just a part, and a mere instrument at that. It is people who matter ultimately; profits are only instrumental means to human lives…In other words, the real purpose of development is human development.

Martha C. Nussbaum; Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach (2013)

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights

From the first sentence of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Yet what greater defeat could we suffer than to come to resemble the forces we oppose in their disrespect for human dignity?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg; from her speech to the International Academy of Comparative Law at
American University; July 30, 2010

The facts that things matter to humans, that they are capable of caring deeply about some things, that they make enduring commitments to some people, projects, and interests, all are relevant when we are trying to ascertain the formal constraints on good human choices.

Christine McKinnon; Character, Virtue Theories, and the Vices (1999)

Just 0.5% of the wealth of the top 1% of the wealthy would pay for 246 million children to attend school.

Paul Polson; from his keynote speech at the Society for International Development; Dec 12,
2019

It is said that modernity marked a transition in morals from the language of the good to that of the right.

Yechiel Michael Barilan; Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Responsibility (2012)

The greater the suffering that a society may inflict on people within or outside its domestic jurisdiction, the more urgent the question of human dignity becomes.

George Kateb, Human Dignity (2011)

Immanuel Kant placed a stoically inspired notion of dignity in the heart of his ethics, stressing rationality, self-regulation, universality, equality, and the idea that humans must never be treated ‘as mere means’ to any end whatsoever. He envisioned a system of international civil rights and universal peace.

Yechiel Michael Barilan, Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Responsibility (2012)

In the history of morals, it is common knowledge that the ancients and premoderns conceived of moral theory in terms of ideals and virtues; the modern discourse on morals is articulated by the vocabulary of duties, permissions, and prohibitions.

Yechiel Michael Barilan, Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Responsibility (2012)

It is important to observe that fine philosophical theories of justice and splendid constitutions do not – by themselves – guarantee that a society is just or law-abiding. Asymmetries of power can be just as inimical to the rule of philosophers or the rule of law as it is to rule by the people.

David A. Crocker; “Deliberative Participation in Local Development” (2007)

If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.

Peter Singer; “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”: Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3
(1972)

From the moral point of view, the prevention of the starvation of millions of people outside our society must be considered at least as pressing as the upholding of property norms within our society.

Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”: Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3
(1972)

When we honor someone else’s dignity, we strengthen our own

Donna Hicks, “Declare Dignity”: Donna Hicks at TEDxStormont