Amartya Sen said this quote

An epistemic methodology that sees the pursuit of knowledge as entirely congruent with the search for power is a great deal more cunning than wise. It can needlessly undermine the value of knowledge in satisfying curiosity and interest it significantly weakens one of the profound characteristics of human beings.

~ Amartya Sen

While we cannot live without history, we need not live within it either.

~ Amartya Sen

A society can be Pareto optimal and still perfectly disgusting.

~ Amartya Sen

To understand the world is never a matter of simply recording our immediate perceptions. Understanding inescapably involves reasoning.We have to 'read' what we feel and seem to see, and ask what those perceptions indicate and how we may take them into account without being overwhelmed by them. One issue relates to the reliability of our feelings and impressions. A sense of injustice could serve as a signal that moves us, but a signal does demand critical examination, and there has to be some scrutiny of the soundness of aconclusion based mainly on signals...We also have to ask what kinds of reasoning should count in the assessment of ethical and political concepts such as justice and injustice.

~ Amartya Sen