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Equality quotes

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a Dream” - 28 August 1963

“We're all human beings here, one like the other.” Franz Kafka, “The Trial” - 1925

“The only social peril is darkness. Humanity is identity. All men are made of the same clay.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons, and no government can stand which is not founded upon justice.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Every citizen, it is said, must have equality, and therefore in a democracy the poor have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“It is precisely because the force of circumstances tends continually to destroy equality that the force of legislation should always tend to its maintenance.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority, perfect equality affords no temptation.” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” - 1776

“Enable every woman who can work to take her place on the labour front, under the principle of equal pay for equal work.” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“Have no friends not equal to yourself.” Confucius, “Analects”

“Distribution should undo excess, and each man have enough.” William Shakespeare, “King Lear” - 1623

“Man, we say, has two sides, the specialist side where he must have subordination, and the social side where he must have equality.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“I have a dream 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., “I have a Dream” - 28 August 1963

“This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a Dream” - 28 August 1963

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a Dream” - 28 August 1963

“We are all brothers under the skin-and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.” Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography” - 1913

“This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavour to do himself honour among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.” Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver's Travels” - 1726

“Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“For if liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Segregation is that which is forced upon inferiors by superiors. But separation is that which is done voluntarily, by two equals—for the good of both!” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem—just to avoid violence.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“Equality is to be found only in the spiritual dignity of man, and that will only be understood among us.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“Yet command and obedience are but unfortunate necessities of human life: society in equality is its normal state.” John Stuart Mill, “The Subjection of Women” - 1869

“Thus the principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history, to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation, the God given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all...” Barack Obama, “Inaugural Address” - 20 January 2009

“I am of the opinion that the national laws governing the choice of members of the Congress should be extended to include appropriate representation of the respective parties at the ballot box ant equality of representation on the various...” Calvin Coolidge, “State of the Union Address” - 3 December 1924

“Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen.” Calvin Coolidge, “State of the Union Address” - 6 December 1923

“They were assured, of course, of the inerrable equality of death, but nobody wanted that kind of equality.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“But all this business about kings and lords, it’s against basic human dignity. We’re all born equal. It makes me sick.” Terry Pratchett, “Guards! Guards!” - 1989

“My husband used to say, that man and wife are equal in love because of their equal claim on each other. I never argued the point with him, but my heart said that devotion never stands in the way of true equality; it only raises the level of the...” Rabindranath Tagore, “The Home and the World” - 1916

“The Dutch fetiches, who have converted me, declare every Sunday that we are all of us children of Adam—blacks as well as whites. I am not a genealogist, but if these preachers tell truth, we are all second cousins.” Voltaire, “Candide” - 1759

“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953

“We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the power of the state; respect for women; private property; free speech; equal justice;...” George W. Bush, “State of the Union Address” - 29 January 2002

“The nineteenth-century liberal regarded an extension of freedom as the most effective way to promote welfare and equality; the twentieth-century liberal regards welfare and equality as either prerequisites of or alternatives to freedom.” Milton Friedman, “Capitalism and Freedom” - 1962

“Only a peace between equals can last; only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit.” Woodrow Wilson, “A World League For Peace” - 22 January 1917

“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.” Emma Goldman, “Anarchism and Other Essays” - 1910

“No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?” George Orwell, “Animal Farm” - 1945

“There are many humorous things in the world; among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.” Mark Twain, “Following the Equator” - 1897

“I don’t think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and...” George Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion” - 1913

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freedom humanity democracy happiness dream man power woman dignity work brotherhood government love violence men women death truth darkness friendship

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Aristotle (5)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (4)
Malcolm X (2)
Calvin Coolidge (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
Jane Austen (1)
George Bernard Shaw (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Charlotte Brontë (1)
George Orwell (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Ayn Rand (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Theodore Roosevelt (1)
Jonathan Swift (1)
Confucius (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
John Stuart Mill (1)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)

Related sources

Politics (5)
I have a Dream (4)
State of the Union Address (3)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (2)
King Lear (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
What's Wrong with the World (1)
The Fountainhead (1)
Les Misérables (1)
Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography (1)
Gulliver's Travels (1)
Analects (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
The Subjection of Women (1)
Democracy in America (1)
The Social Contract (1)
The Trial (1)
Inaugural Address (1)
Common Sense (1)