"The aim of political philosophy is to articulate and to make explicit those shared notions and principles that are latent in the common sense of a democratic society."

"A well-ordered society is a society regulated by a public conception of justice."

"The role of justice is to specify the fair terms of social cooperation."

"The idea of public reason specifies the political values that are to guide the exercise of political power."

"The problem of justice is to specify the principles that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality."