People are pretty much alike. It’s only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.
—Linda Ellerbee (b.1944) American Journalist
More countries have understood that women’s equality is a prerequisite for development.
—Kofi Annan (1938–2018) Ghanaian Statesman, International Diplomat
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
Some will always be above others. Destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
Equality…is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
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
Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
All men are equal before fish.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
The longer we live, the more we find we are like other persons.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
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
To refuse political equality is to rob the ostracized of all self-respect.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) American Social Reformer
However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
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
Equality is the life of conversation; and he is as much out who assumes to himself any part above another, as he who considers himself below the rest of society.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
The doctrine of equality! There exists no more poisonous poison: for it seems to be preached by justice itself, while it is the end of justice.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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
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
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold…. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
Perfect love cannot be without equality.
—Scottish Proverb
Equal opportunity is good, but special privilege is better.
—Anna Chennault (1925–2018) Chinese-American Journalist
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) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
The deadly Hydra now is the hydra of Equality. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity is the three-fanged serpent.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
No man is above the law, and no man is below it.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer-songwriter
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
You cannot have all chiefs; you gotta have Indians too.
—U.S. Proverb