More countries have understood that women’s equality is a prerequisite for development.
—Kofi Annan (1938–2018) Ghanaian Statesman, International Diplomat
It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ, of the will of all which establishes in civil rights the natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political leaders should speak when. they command.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid. There is no big man who has not felt small. Some men never feel small; but these are the few men who are.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Whatever difference there may appear to be in men’s fortunes, there is still a certain compensation of good and ill in all, that makes them equal.
—Pierre Charron (1541–1603) French Preacher, Philosopher
We didn’t all come over on the same ship, but we’re all in the same boat.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that is the end.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
All men are by nature equal, made, all, of the same earth by the same Creator, and however we deceive ourselves, as dear to God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-American Philosopher, Poet, Sculptor
Inferiors revolt in order that they be equal, and equals that they be superior.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Death and the cross are the two great levellers; kings and their subjects, masters and slaves, find a common level in two places—at the foot of the cross, and in the silence of the grave.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The sole equality on earth is death.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
They who say all men are equal speak an undoubted truth, if they mean that all have an equal right to liberty, to their property, and to their protection of the laws.—But they are mistaken if they think men are equal in their station and employments, since they are not so by their talents.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
All the people like us are We, And everyone else is They. And They live over the sea, While We live over the way. But-would you believe it?-They look upon We As only a sort of They.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Writer, Poet, Novelist, Short Story Author
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The first step in providing economic equality for women is to ensure a stable economy in which every person who wants to work can work.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
Equality, in a social sense, may be divided into that of condition and that of rights. Equality of condition is incompatible with civilization, and is found only to exist in those communities that are but slightly removed from the savage state. In practice, it can only mean a common misery.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
A friend to everybody and to nobody is the same thing.
—Spanish Proverb
Liberty, equality—bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
One-half of the people of this nation to-day are utterly powerless to blot from the statute books an unjust law, or to write there a new and a just one.
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American Civil Rights Leader
Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
We accept and welcome… as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment; the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few; and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The only inequalities that matter begin in the mind. It is not income levels but differences in mental equipment that keep people apart, breed feelings of inferiority.
—Jacquetta Hawkes (1910–96) English Archaeologist, Writer
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
—Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Labor Leader, Socialist
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