Rorty (Contingency, irony, and solidarity):

"All that is required to act well is to do what artists are good at – noticing things that most people do not notice, being curious about what others take for granted, seeing the momentary iridescence and not just the underlying formal structure."

"We are more likely to notice the joys and sufferings of one person if our attention is directed to it by the surprising indifference of another person."

"…Only what is relevant to our sense of what we should do we with ourselves, or for others, is aesthetically useful."

"But O'Brien*, the well-informed, well-placed, well-adjusted, intelligent, sensitive, educated member of the Inner Party, is more than just alarming… Orwell managed… to convince us that O'Brien is a plausible character of a possible future society…"

* a character in Orwell's 1984 who tortures Winston and who says: 'The object of torture is torture'