Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Come forward, some great marshal, and organize equality in society, and your rod shall swallow up all the juggling old court gold-sticks
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
Inferiors revolt in order that they be equal, and equals that they be superior.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Men are by nature unequal.—It is rain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
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
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
The hole and the patch should be commensurate.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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
Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
All men are equal before fish.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
Some will always be above others. Destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality – an authoritarian determination of the status of each individual in the new hierarchical order
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
The very existence of government at all, infers inequality. The citizen who is preferred to office becomes the superior to those who are not, so long as he is the repository of power, and the child inherits the wealth of the parent as a controlling law of society.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
The English are no nearer than they were a hundred years ago to knowing what Jefferson really meant when he said that God had created all men equal.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
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
The desire to be right usually trumps the desire for truth.
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach
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
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
The intelligence suffers today automatically in consequence of the attack on all authority, advantage, or privilege. These things are not done away with, it is needless to say, but numerous scapegoats are made of the less politically powerful, to satisfy the egalitarian rage awakened.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
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
The longer we live, the more we find we are like other persons.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
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
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
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
Let them ease their hearts with prate of equal rights, which man never knew.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero.
Princes were privileg’d
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
Ah! why will kings forget that they are men,
And men that they are brethren?
—Beilby Porteus (1731–1809) Anglican Bishop of London
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
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
To refuse political equality is to rob the ostracized of all self-respect.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) American Social Reformer
If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that.
—Arthur Ashe (1943–93) American Tennis Player
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
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
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
Equality…is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
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
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, 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
Nature has never read the Declaration of Independence. It continues to make us unequal.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
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
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
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
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
Where equality is undisputed, so also is subordination.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The equality of conditions is more complete in the Christian countries of the present day, than it has been, at any time, or in any part of the world.—Its gradual development is a providential fact, and it possesses all the characteristics of a divine decree; it is universal, it is durable, and it constantly eludes all human interference; and all events, as well as all men, contribute to its progress.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist