Quotes4study

Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd: Whatever sooths our Pride, and tends to exalt our Species above the rest of the Creation, we are pleas'd with and easily believe, when ungrateful Truths shall be with the utmost Indignation rejected. "What! bring ourselves down to an Equality with the Beasts of the Field! with the meanest part of the Creation! 'Tis insufferable!" But, (to use a Piece of common Sense) our Geese are but Geese tho' we may think 'em Swans; and Truth will be Truth tho' it sometimes prove mortifying and distasteful.

Benjamin Franklin

Nature knows no equality; her sovereign law is subordination and dependence.

_Vauvenargues._

>Equality of economic opportunity, in the context of private property, means equality of opportunity for the millions of capital-less households of today to buy, pay for, and employ in their lives the non-human factor of production, capital.

Kelso, Louis O.

Gleichheit est immer das festeste Band der Liebe=--Equality is the firmest bond of love.

_Lessing._

The concentration of wealth is a natural result of this concentration of ability, and regularly recurs in history. The rate of concentration varies (other factors being equal) with the economic freedom permitted by morals and laws. Despotism may for a time retard the concentration; democracy, allowing the most freedom, accelerates it. The relative equality of Americans before 1776 has been overwhelmed by a thousand forms of physical, mental and economic differentiation, so that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is now greater than at any time since Imperial plutocratic Rome. In progressive societies the concentration may reach a point where the strength of number in the many poor rivals the strength of ability in the few rich; then the unstable equilibrium generates a critical situation, which history has diversely met by legislation redistributing wealth or by revolution distributing poverty. [ The Lessons of History , Simon and Shuster, 1968, p. 55.]

Durant, Will and Ariel.

>Equality comes in different forms, and it is a lot harder being a girl in Ethiopia than it was in Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Wein

If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil of the United States — that is to say, they will owe their origin not to the equality but to the inequality of conditions. [ Democracy in America , p. 461.]

Tocqueville, Alexis de.

Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his brother.

T. H. Huxley     Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley

Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.

_Emerson._

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 (born 16 April 1844

[P]olitical democracy cannot flourish under all economic conditions. Democracy requires an economic system which supports the political ideals of liberty and equality for all. Men cannot exercise freedom in the political sphere when they are deprived of it in the economic sphere. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton observed that a man who is dependent for his subsistence on the arbitrary will of another man is not economically free and so should not be admitted to citizenship because he cannot use the political liberty which belongs to that status. If they had stated this point as a prediction, it would have been confirmed by later historic facts. The progressive political enfranchisement of the working classes has followed their progressive economic emancipation from slavery and serfdom, or from abject dependence on their employers. [Preface by Adler in The Capitalist Manifesto

Adler, Mortimer J.

Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Plato

The market, if it can be kept honest and competitive, does provide very strong incentives for work effort and productive contributions. In their absence, society would thrash about for alternative incentives—some unreliable, like altruism; some perilous like collective loyalty; some intolerable, like coercion or oppression. [ Equality and Efficiency: The Big Trade-Off. ]

Okun, Arthur.

The libertarian good society lies…in the maximum dispersion of property compatible with effective production or, as process, in progressive reconciliation of conflicts between equality and efficiency. Such process involves increasing dispersion both of wealth among persons and families and of proximate productional control among enterprises or firms.… [ Economic Policy for a Free Society . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, p. 27.]

Simons, Henry C. (Professor of Economics, University of Chicago)

~Equality.~--Whether I be the grandest genius on earth in a single thing, and that single thing earthy, or the poor peasant who, behind his plow, whistles for want of thought, I strongly suspect it will be all one when I pass to the Competitive Examination yonder! On the other side of the grave a Raffael's occupation may be gone as well as a plowman's.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

Maturin M. Ballou     Pearls of Thought

The world of the seventies is an entirely new world from that of the thirties. Many revolutions have changed the political, social and economic conditions of peoples, changing many concepts out of recognition and making our world a fast-changing world. The more pertinent revolutions to our studies on Constitutional reforms are: 1) the scientific revolution…, 2) the revolution of equality of men and nations…, 3) the revolution of rising expectations, and 4) the fiscal, monetary and organizational revolution of Marx and Keynes which should evolve in the triumph of a more relevant revolution, that advocated by Kelso which envisions a political economy based on popular suffrage, popular education, and popular capitalism. [ Bayanikasan: The Effective Democracy for All, 1976.]

Araneta, Salvador.

Gleichheit ist das heilige Gesetz der Menschheit=--Equality is the holy law of humanity.

_Schiller._

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

'Mahatma' (great soul), Gandhi

<...> this Revolutionary ideology, epitomized by the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence, showed that the very idea of slavery is a fiction or fraud, since liberty and equality are fundamental rights that no one can legitimately lose.

David Brion Davis

The love of democracy is that of equality.--_Montesquieu._

Maturin M. Ballou     Pearls of Thought

The great failure of the critic of culture, even when his intentions are benign, lies in his inability to recognize that the perfect world of peace, justice, equality, and environmental harmony of which he dreams — a utopia run by enlightened, sensitive, progressive (and preferably multi-degree) philosopher-kings — is a tyranny pure and simple. Philosopher-kings soon must discover a need for bureaucrats and policemen to administer and enforce their notion of the public good. They must also discover, to their chagrin, that the bureaucrats and policemen quickly will become the real power in such a society. This is precisely what happened to communism in its evolution from an intellectual, Marxist, social philosophy to a brutally anti-intellectual, Leninist, political system. [“Critics of Culture” (commentary), Fidelity Magazine, March 1995, p. 14.]

Morgan, James A.

No doubt equality of goods is just, but since they are unable to bring about that power should obey justice, people have judged it right to obey power; not being able to add power to justice they have justified power, so that justice and power should coalesce, and peace, the sovereign good, result.

Blaise Pascal     The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

Perfect love canna be without equality.

_Sc. Pr._

The grave is, I suspect, the sole commonwealth which attains that dead flat of social equality that life in its every principle so heartily abhors; and that equality the grave will perpetuate to the end of time.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

Maturin M. Ballou     Pearls of Thought

Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest. [ The Spirit of Laws , viii. c. 2.]

Montesquieu, Baron de la Brede et de (Charles de Secondat) .

>Equality= (_i.e._, in essential nature) =is the sacred law of humanity.

_Schiller._

The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness. [ Democracy in America . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, Vol. II, p. 334.]

Tocqueville, Alexis de.

>Equality= (Gleichheit) =is always the firmest bond of love.

_Lessing._

Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves only in the legal sense. Technology was the slave’s real emancipator. Technology freed the slave by transferring his toil onto the tireless backs of non-human slaves driven by water, steam, petroleum and electricity. But the Black man…has never owned, and never had a chance to own, the machine that replaced and indeed, surpassed his power to toil a thousandfold. When he lost his servitude he lost his livelihood. As Frederick Douglas said, “Emancipation made the slaves free to hunger; free to the winter and rains of heaven…free without roofs to cover them or bread to eat or land to cultivate.” For all his good intentions, Lincoln didn’t free the slaves. He fired them.… People who teach economics are mostly white, but the people who understand economics are mostly Black.… Slavery taught us WHO had the leisure, WHO had freedom, WHO had wealth. Not the slave, but the slave owner. Not the sharecropper, but the land-owner. Not the employee, but the capital owner. [Statement on 1969 founding of Soul City, North Carolina on the 160th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth; former President of the Congress or Racial Equality (CORE).]

McKissick, Floyd.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society \x97 the farmers, mechanics, and laborers \x97 who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.

Andrew Jackson

The dissolution of society bids fair to become the termination of a career of which property is the end and aim, because such a career contains the elements of self-destruction. Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and privileges, and universal education, foreshadow the next higher plane of society to which experience, intelligence and knowledge are steadily tending. [ Ancient Society .]

Morgan, Lewis Henry.

This enemy attacked not just our people, but all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world. The United States of America will use all our resources to conquer this enemy. We will rally the world. We will be patient, we will be focused, and we will be steadfast in our determination.… we will not allow this enemy to win the war by changing our way of life or restricting our freedoms.

George W. Bush ~ On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family. We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. … The cause of securing our country is not complete. But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place. Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ~ Barack Obama

Justice is not postponed. A perfect equality adjusts its balance in all parts of life.

_Emerson._

Don't compare floating point numbers solely for equality.

Unknown

In the state of nature, indeed, 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 laws. [ The Spirit of Laws , xxi. c. 2.]

Montesquieu, Baron de la Brede et de (Charles de Secondat) .

As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.

Eric Hoffer

I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

This is the great problem of mankind. We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together, black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who because we can never live apart, must live with each other in peace. However deeply American Negroes are caught in the struggle to be at last home in our homeland of the U.S., we cannot ignore the larger world house in which we are also dwellers. Equality with whites will not solve the problems of either whites or Negroes if it means equality in a world society stricken by poverty, and in a universe doomed to extinction by war.” [From Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (p. 167). Quoted in In Love We Trust , by Virgil A. Wood, 2004.]

King Jr., Martin Luther.

A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.

About Humanity

The highest political watchword is not Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, nor yet Solidarity, but Service.

_A. H. Clough._

The Least Successful Equal Pay Advertisement

    In 1976 the European Economic Community pointed out to the Irish

Government that it had not yet implemented the agreed sex equality</p>

legislation.  The Dublin Government immediately advertised for an equal pay

enforcement officer.  The advertisement offered different salary scales for

men and women.

        -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"

Fortune Cookie

The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor,

to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

        -- Anatole France

Fortune Cookie

    Equality is not when a female Einstein gets promoted to assistant

professor; equality is when a female schlemiel moves ahead as fast as a

male schlemiel.

        -- Ewald Nyquist

Fortune Cookie

Men of quality are not afraid of women for equality.

Fortune Cookie

Don't compare floating point numbers solely for equality.

Fortune Cookie

The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man

really clever who has not found that he is stupid.

        -- Gilbert K. Chesterson

Fortune Cookie

Monseigneur gone, and the three strong men absolving themselves from the sin of having drawn his high wages, by being more than ready and willing to cut his throat on the altar of the dawning Republic one and indivisible of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, Monseigneur's house had been first sequestrated, and then confiscated. For, all things moved so fast, and decree followed decree with that fierce precipitation, that now upon the third night of the autumn month of September, patriot emissaries of the law were in possession of Monseigneur's house, and had marked it with the tri-colour, and were drinking brandy in its state apartments.

Charles Dickens     A Tale of Two Cities

A murky red and yellow sky, and a rising mist from the Seine, denoted the approach of darkness. It was almost dark when they arrived at the Bank. The stately residence of Monseigneur was altogether blighted and deserted. Above a heap of dust and ashes in the court, ran the letters: National Property. Republic One and Indivisible. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death!

Charles Dickens     A Tale of Two Cities

(1) The equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia.

John Reed     Ten Days That Shook the World

_On the Equality of Rank of All Military Men_

John Reed     Ten Days That Shook the World

>Equality is fundamental in every department of social organization.

George Bernard Shaw     Maxims for Revolutionists

"The idea that there is no equality, even when you are dead! Just look at Pere Lachaise! The great, those who are rich, are up above, in the acacia alley, which is paved. They can reach it in a carriage. The little people, the poor, the unhappy, well, what of them? they are put down below, where the mud is up to your knees, in the damp places. They are put there so that they will decay the sooner! You cannot go to see them without sinking into the earth."

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

The historians of culture are quite consistent in regard to their progenitors, the writers of universal histories, for if historical events may be explained by the fact that certain persons treated one another in such and such ways, why not explain them by the fact that such and such people wrote such and such books? Of the immense number of indications accompanying every vital phenomenon, these historians select the indication of intellectual activity and say that this indication is the cause. But despite their endeavors to prove that the cause of events lies in intellectual activity, only by a great stretch can one admit that there is any connection between intellectual activity and the movement of peoples, and in no case can one admit that intellectual activity controls people's actions, for that view is not confirmed by such facts as the very cruel murders of the French Revolution resulting from the doctrine of the equality of man, or the very cruel wars and executions resulting from the preaching of love.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

Mr. Trabb's boy was the most audacious boy in all that country-side. When I had entered he was sweeping the shop, and he had sweetened his labors by sweeping over me. He was still sweeping when I came out into the shop with Mr. Trabb, and he knocked the broom against all possible corners and obstacles, to express (as I understood it) equality with any blacksmith, alive or dead.

Charles Dickens     Great Expectations

The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality, much less the creatures to which they respectively belong. For as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to Leviathan, so, compared with Leviathan's tail, his trunk is but the stalk of a lily. The most direful blow from the elephant's trunk were as the playful tap of a fan, compared with the measureless crush and crash of the sperm whale's ponderous flukes, which in repeated instances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their oars and crews into the air, very much as an Indian juggler tosses his balls.*

Herman Melville     Moby Dick; or The Whale

"Liberty and equality," said the vicomte contemptuously, as if at last deciding seriously to prove to this youth how foolish his words were, "high-sounding words which have long been discredited. Who does not love liberty and equality? Even our Saviour preached liberty and equality. Have people since the Revolution become happier? On the contrary. We wanted liberty, but Buonaparte has destroyed it."

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

So they with prayers importuned, and with tears Their son, but him sway'd not; unmoved he stood, Expecting vast Achilles now at hand. As some fell serpent in his cave expects The traveller's approach, batten'd with herbs Of baneful juice to fury, forth he looks Hideous, and lies coil'd all around his den, So Hector, fill'd with confidence untamed, Fled not, but placing his bright shield against A buttress, with his noble heart conferr'd. Alas for me! should I repass the gate, Polydamas would be the first to heap Reproaches on me, for he bade me lead The Trojans back this last calamitous night In which Achilles rose to arms again. But I refused, although to have complied, Had proved more profitable far; since then By rash resolves of mine I have destroy'd The people, how can I escape the blame Of all in Troy? The meanest there will say-- By his self-will he hath destroy'd us all. So shall they speak, and then shall I regret That I return'd ere I had slain in fight Achilles, or that, by Achilles slain, I died not nobly in defence of Troy. But shall I thus? Lay down my bossy shield, Put off my helmet, and my spear recline Against the city wall, then go myself To meet the brave Achilles, and at once Promise him Helen, for whose sake we strive With all the wealth that Paris in his fleet Brought home, to be restored to Atreus' sons, And to distribute to the Greeks at large All hidden treasures of the town, an oath Taking beside from every senator, That he will nought conceal, but will produce And share in just equality what stores Soever our fair city still includes? Ah airy speculations, questions vain! I may not sue to him: compassion none Will he vouchsafe me, or my suit respect. But, seeing me unarm'd, will sate at once His rage, and womanlike I shall be slain. It is no time from oak or hollow rock With him to parley, as a nymph and swain, A nymph and swain soft parley mutual hold, But rather to engage in combat fierce Incontinent; so shall we soonest learn Whom Jove will make victorious, him or me.

BOOK XXII.     The Iliad by Homer

One year and three months. During all that time Lucie was never sure, from hour to hour, but that the Guillotine would strike off her husband's head next day. Every day, through the stony streets, the tumbrils now jolted heavily, filled with Condemned. Lovely girls; bright women, brown-haired, black-haired, and grey; youths; stalwart men and old; gentle born and peasant born; all red wine for La Guillotine, all daily brought into light from the dark cellars of the loathsome prisons, and carried to her through the streets to slake her devouring thirst. Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death;--the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!

Charles Dickens     A Tale of Two Cities

Met by this difficulty historians of that class devise some most obscure, impalpable, and general abstraction which can cover all conceivable occurrences, and declare this abstraction to be the aim of humanity's movement. The most usual generalizations adopted by almost all the historians are: freedom, equality, enlightenment, progress, civilization, and culture. Postulating some generalization as the goal of the movement of humanity, the historians study the men of whom the greatest number of monuments have remained: kings, ministers, generals, authors, reformers, popes, and journalists, to the extent to which in their opinion these persons have promoted or hindered that abstraction. But as it is in no way proved that the aim of humanity does consist in freedom, equality, enlightenment, or civilization, and as the connection of the people with the rulers and enlighteners of humanity is only based on the arbitrary assumption that the collective will of the people is always transferred to the men whom we have noticed, it happens that the activity of the millions who migrate, burn houses, abandon agriculture, and destroy one another never is expressed in the account of the activity of some dozen people who did not burn houses, practice agriculture, or slay their fellow creatures.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

"And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them."

Charlotte Bronte     Jane Eyre

"That's plagiarism, Alyosha. You're quoting your elder's phrases. Ah, Ivan has set you a problem!" cried Rakitin, with undisguised malice. His face changed, and his lips twitched. "And the problem's a stupid one. It is no good guessing it. Rack your brains--you'll understand it. His article is absurd and ridiculous. And did you hear his stupid theory just now: if there's no immortality of the soul, then there's no virtue, and everything is lawful. (And by the way, do you remember how your brother Mitya cried out: 'I will remember!') An attractive theory for scoundrels!--(I'm being abusive, that's stupid.) Not for scoundrels, but for pedantic _poseurs_, 'haunted by profound, unsolved doubts.' He's showing off, and what it all comes to is, 'on the one hand we cannot but admit' and 'on the other it must be confessed!' His whole theory is a fraud! Humanity will find in itself the power to live for virtue even without believing in immortality. It will find it in love for freedom, for equality, for fraternity."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Brothers Karamazov

The prince had been listening attentively to Radomski's words, and thought his manner very pleasant. When Colia chaffed him about his waggonette he had replied with perfect equality and in a friendly fashion. This pleased Muishkin.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

"It is not such a very dreadful circumstance that we are odd people, is it? For we really are odd, you know--careless, reckless, easily wearied of anything. We don't look thoroughly into matters--don't care to understand things. We are all like this--you and I, and all of them! Why, here are you, now--you are not a bit angry with me for calling you 'odd,' are you? And, if so, surely there is good material in you? Do you know, I sometimes think it is a good thing to be odd. We can forgive one another more easily, and be more humble. No one can begin by being perfect--there is much one cannot understand in life at first. In order to attain to perfection, one must begin by failing to understand much. And if we take in knowledge too quickly, we very likely are not taking it in at all. I say all this to you--you who by this time understand so much--and doubtless have failed to understand so much, also. I am not afraid of you any longer. You are not angry that a mere boy should say such words to you, are you? Of course not! You know how to forget and to forgive. You are laughing, Ivan Petrovitch? You think I am a champion of other classes of people--that I am _their_ advocate, a democrat, and an orator of Equality?" The prince laughed hysterically; he had several times burst into these little, short nervous laughs. "Oh, no--it is for you, for myself, and for all of us together, that I am alarmed. I am a prince of an old family myself, and I am sitting among my peers; and I am talking like this in the hope of saving us all; in the hope that our class will not disappear altogether--into the darkness--unguessing its danger--blaming everything around it, and losing ground every day. Why should we disappear and give place to others, when we may still, if we choose, remain in the front rank and lead the battle? Let us be servants, that we may become lords in due season!"

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

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