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
Where equality is undisputed, so also is subordination.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven.
—Yiddish Proverb
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
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
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 longer we live, the more we find we are like other persons.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Equal opportunity is good, but special privilege is better.
—Anna Chennault (1925–2018) Chinese-American Journalist
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
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
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
Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all.
—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
Equality is what does not exist among mortals.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
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
If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. Theyll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
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
More countries have understood that women’s equality is a prerequisite for development.
—Kofi Annan (1938–2018) Ghanaian Statesman, International Diplomat
Nothing can be unconditional: consequently nothing can be free.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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 desire to be right usually trumps the desire for truth.
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach
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
There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.
—Unknown
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
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
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
The sole equality on earth is death.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.
—Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) Italian Catholic Priest, Philosopher, Theologian
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