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The ultimate stakes in politics are the qualities of the direct relations among people.... This fine texture of routinized human relations is the primary social reality. Even the boldest transformative efforts often take it for granted or, having acknowledged its importance, fail to alter it.

— Roberto Mangabeira Unger False Necessityː Anti-Necessitarian Social Theory in the Service of Radical Democracy (1987)

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More quotes by Roberto Mangabeira Unger

The partnership between the progressive school and the deepened democracy may help to nourish the childlike intensity of ordinary people as they grow older.

Democracy Realizedː The Progressive Alternative (1998)

In history obedience rarely pays; what pays is defiance.

The Left Alternative (2009)

Philosophy is a concentrated deployment of the transgressing facilities of the mind.

The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007)

We can, we must, jumble up the categories of reform and revolution, preferring change that, though perforce piecemeal, may, in its cumulative effect, become revolutionary.

The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007)

We cannot form and enhance personality without encouraging strong impulse and strong vision in the individual. Such impulse and such vision must seek a collective voice and a social expression.

The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Roberto Mangabeira Unger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.