Equality

Equality is equal treatment of people irrespective of social or cultural differences.

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
• United States Declaration of Independence, 1776.

• The representatives of the people of France, formed into a National Assembly, considering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt of human rights, are the sole causes of public misfortunes and corruptions of Government, have resolved to set forth, in a solemn declaration, these natural, imprescriptible, and inalienable rights; that this declaration being constantly present to the minds of the members of the body social, they may be ever kept attentive to their rights and their duties; that the acts of the legislative and executive powers of Government, being capable of being every moment compared with the end of political institutions, may be more respected; and also, that the future claims of the citizens, being directed by simple and incontestable principles, may always tend to the maintenance of the Constitution, and the general happiness. For these reasons the National Assembly doth recognize and declare, in the presence of the Supreme Being and with the hope of his blessing and favor, the following sacred rights of men and of citizens:

I. Men are born, and always continue, free and equal in respect of their rights. Civil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility.

• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, issued by the

National Constituent Assembly, 1789.

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
  • Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

• The Elgin writer says that we shall "jeopardize the best interests of the Socialist Party" if we insist upon the political equality of the Negro. I say that the Socialist Party would be false to its historic mission, violate the fundamental principles of Socialism, deny its philosophy and repudiate its own teachings if, on account of race considerations, it sought to exclude any human being from political equality and economic freedom. Then, indeed, would it not only "jeopardize" its best interests, but forfeit its very life, for it would soon be scorned and deserted as a thing unclean, leaving but a stench in the nostrils of honest men.
  • Eugene V. Debs, The Negro and His Nemesis (1904).

• For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.
  • Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651), Part I, Chapter 8, page 32.

• La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.
  • 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.
  • Le Lys Rouge [The Red Lily] (1894), chapter 7. Variant: How noble the law, in its majestic equality, that both the rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread!

• 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, The Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863).

• For some must follow, and some command
  Though all are made of clay!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kéramos (1878), line 6.

• Among unequals what society
  Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 383.

• Equality of two domestic powers
  Breeds scrupulous faction.
  • William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act I, scene 3, line 47.

• Mean and mighty, rotting
  Together, have one dust.
  • William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act IV, scene 2, line 246.

• Heralds, from off our towers we might behold,
  From first to last, the onset and retire
  Of both your armies; whose equality
  By our best eyes cannot be censured:
  Blood hath bought blood and blows have answer'd blows;
  Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power:
  Both are alike; and both alike we like.
  • William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act II, scene 1, line 325.

• She in beauty, education, blood,
  Holds hand with any princess of the world.
  • William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act II, scene 1, line 493.

• 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 the society.
  • Richard Steele, Tatler (1709-1711), No. 225.

• It is not true that equality is a law of nature. Nature has made nothing equal; her sovereign law is subordination and dependence.
  • Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Réflexions et Maximes (1746).

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235-36.

• Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal.
  • James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects, Party Politics.

• Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves: but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
  • Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1763).

• For the colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady,
  Are sisters under their skins.
  • Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads, Introduction.

• Par in parem imperium non habet.
  • An equal has no power over an equal.
  • Law Maxim.

• Quod ad jus naturale attinet, omnes homines æquales sunt.
  • All men are equal before the natural law.
  • Law Maxim.

• Et sceleratis sol oritur.
  • The sun shines even on the wicked.
  • Seneca, De Beneficiis, III. 25.

• The trickling rain doth fall
  Upon us one and all;
  The south-wind kisses
  The saucy milkmaid's cheek,
  The nun's, demure and meek,
  Nor any misses.
  • Edmund Clarence Stedman, A Madrigal, Stanza 3.

• The tall, the wise, the reverend head,
  Must be as low as ours.
  • Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II, Hymn 63.