# Quote — Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice

> When Hobbes referred to the dire state of human beings in having ‘nasty, brutish and short’ lives, he also pointed, in the same sentence, to the disturbing adversity of being ‘solitary’. Escape from isolation may not only be important for the quality of human life, it can also contribute powerfully to understanding and responding to the other deprivations from which human beings suffer. There is surely a basic strength here which is complementary to the engagement in which theories of justice are involved.

- Author: [Amartya Sen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amartya-sen.md)
- Book: [The Idea of Justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amartya-sen/the-idea-of-justice.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amartya_Sen#The_Idea_of_Justice_(2009)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/amartya-sen/the-idea-of-justice/when-hobbes-referred

## More from this book

> Rather, it is the firmly ‘open’ outlook, which Smith’s ‘impartial spec tator’ invokes, that may be in some need of reassertion today. It can make a substantial difference to our understanding of the demands of impartiality in moral and political philosophy in the interconnected world in which we live.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amartya-sen/the-idea-of-justice/rather-it-is-the.md)

> To ask how things are going and whether they can be improved is a constant and inescapable part of the pursuit of justice.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amartya-sen/the-idea-of-justice/to-ask-how.md)

> Even though in the approach presented here principles of justice will not be defined in terms of institutions, but rather in terms of the lives and freedoms of the people involved, institutions cannot but play a significant instrumental role in the pursuit of justice.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amartya-sen/the-idea-of-justice/even-though-in-the.md)