Michael Sandel Quotes

“Markets are useful instruments for organizing productive activity. But unless we want to let the market rewrite the norms that govern social institutions, we need a public debate about the moral limits of markets.”

“Outrage is the special kind of anger you feel when you believe that people are getting things they don't deserve. Outrage of this kind is anger at injustice.”

“The debate over the priority of the right over the good is ultimately a debate about the meaning of human freedom.”

“The mere fact that a group of people in the past agreed to a constitution is not enough to make that constitution just.”

“The more we regard our success as our own doing, the less responsibility we feel for those who fall behind.”

“The way things are does not determine the way they ought to be.”

“Those who are greatest in civic excellence—not the wealthiest, or the most numerous, or the most handsome—are the ones who merit the greatest share of political recognition and influence.”

“Being good at making money measures neither our merit nor the value of our contribution.”

“The meritocratic ideal is not a remedy for inequality; it is a justification of inequality.”

“It isn't easy to teach students to be citizens, capable of thinking critically about the world around them, when so much of childhood consists of basic training for a consumer society.”

“Self-knowledge is like lost innocence; however unsettling you find it, it can never be 'unthought' or 'unknown'.”