“This day of torment, of craziness, of foolishness—only love can make it end in happiness and joy. —W. A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, Le Nozze di Figaro (1786)” — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
I think that's what we really need in America, for people to hear each other. And I think philosophy could do a little bit… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
If you really do want to increase women's status, you could focus on just that, but you'd probably better focus also on women's education.… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
We are lucky in the United States to have our liberal arts system. In most countries, if you go to university, you have to decide for all English literature or no literature, all philosophy or no philosophy. But we have a system that is one part general education and one part specialization. If your parents say you've got to major… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share
Life is about more than earning a living, and if you're not in the habit of thinking about it, you can end up middle-aged… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
Our emotional life maps our incompleteness: A creature without any needs would never have reasons for fear, or grief, or hope, or anger. — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
I do think there's a lot of bad writing, and I worry about that in philosophy. I worry about it even more in literary… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
With the rise of capitalism, it became more obvious that people pursue individual self-interest. The great nationalist in Italy, Giuseppe Mazzini, a wonderful philosopher, said that we need the nation. We need something that people can lean on, from which they can then reach out to the whole world. The idea of all humanity is too vague. It can't motivate… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share
The EU might have become a large federal nation. But they would have had to do things differently. Number one, they would've had to make people feel like participants in a common project of autonomous law-giving. Much more political accountability, much more participation. That didn't happen, I think, because the movers and shakers were more concerned with economic union than… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share
As human beings, we ought to be vulnerable. We shouldn't try to say that we can be self-sufficient or do everything that's necessary for… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share Image
Disgust relies on moral obtuseness. It is possible to view another human being as a slimy slug or a piece of revolting trash only if one has never made a serious good-faith attempt to see the world through that person’s eyes or to experience that person’s feelings. Disgust imputes to the other a subhuman nature. How, by contrast, do we… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share
The thing that I find so bad about anger is the desire for payback. Of course, it is very human to wish for revenge. Your mother has died in the hospital, and the first thought a lot of people have is, I'll sue the doctor. You feel helpless, and you think, I'm less helpless if I'm doing something active that… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share
The GDP approach doesn't address many aspects of human life: health, education, political liberty, religious liberty, employment opportunities. And these are not all that well correlated with gross domestic product. We also have to think about equality among groups. And freedom of speech and religion. China always ranks near the top of developing countries these days, but there are lots… — Martha C. Nussbaum Copy Share
