The longer we live, the more we find we are like other persons.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
‘Fairness’ is one of the great mantras of the left. Since everyone has his own definition of fairness, that word is a blank check for the expansion of government power. What fairness means in practice is that third parties—busybodies—can prevent mutual accommodations by others.
—Thomas Sowell (b.1930) American Conservative Economist, Political Commentator
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal…
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
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
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
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
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
That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane individual has ever given his assent.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Equality…is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy — I don’t disparage envy but I don’t accept it as legitimately my master.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
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
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: That you are dreadfully like other people.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare it to be wholly different from yourself
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable.
—Unknown
Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with; and there are few giants or dwarfs.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
It is not true that equality is a law of nature.—Nature has no equality.—Its sovereign law is subordination and dependence.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Before God we are all equally wise and equally foolish.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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 Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
When a bachelor of philosophy from the Antilles refuses to apply for certification as a teacher on the grounds of his color I say that philosophy has never saved anyone. When someone else strives and strains to prove to me that black men are as intelligent as white men I say that intelligence has never saved anyone: and that is true, for, if philosophy and intelligence are invoked to proclaim the equality of men, they have also been employed to justify the extermination of men.
—Frantz Fanon (1925–61) French-Martinique Psychoanalyst, Philosopher
The good Lord sees your heart, not the braid on your jacket; before him we are all in our birthday suits, generals and common men alike.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Liberty and equality—lovely and sacred words!
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
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 Socialist, Union Leader
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
In the state of nature…all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
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