“Aristotle's axiom: The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”
Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) Canadian eductor
Source: Peter's People and Their Marvelous Ideas
Whilst a paraphrase this is based off of Aristotle's writings as Aristotle stated "For instance, it is thought that justice is equality, and so it is, though not for everybody but only for those who are equals; and it is thought that inequality is just, for so indeed it is, though not for everybody, but for those who are unequal" in https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aristotle-politics/1932/pb_LCL264.211.xml Politics, III. V. 8.
Misattributed
This first appears in 1974 in an explanation of Aristotle's politics in Time magazine, before being condensed to an epigram as "Aristotle's Axiom" in Peter's People (1979) by Laurence J. Peter
“Aristotle's axiom: The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”
Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) Canadian eductor
Source: Peter's People and Their Marvelous Ideas
Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols
Expeditions of an Untimely Man, §48 Progress in my sense (Streifzüge eines Unzeitgemässen §48 Fortschritt in meinem Sinne). Chapter title also translated as: Skirmishes of an Untimely Man, Kaufmann/Hollingdale translation, and Raids of an Untimely Man, Richard Polt translation
Twilight of the Idols (1888)
Original: (de) Die Lehre von der Gleichheit! ... Aber es giebt gar kein giftigeres Gift: denn sie scheint von der Gerechtigkeit selbst gepredigt, während sie das Ende der Gerechtigkeit ist... "Den Gleichen Gleiches, den Ungleichen Ungleiches - das wäre die wahre Rede der Gerechtigkeit: und, was daraus folgt, Ungleiches niemals gleich machen."
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge
Dissenting in New York v. United States, 331 U.S. 284, 353 (1947).
Judicial opinions
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge
Concurring, Dennis v. United States, 339 U.S. 162, 184 (1950).
Judicial opinions
“There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
John Allen Paulos book A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper
Section 1, “Politics, Economics, and the Nation” Introduction (pp. 7-8)
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
“All things must needs be borne on through the calm void moving at equal rate with unequal weights.”
Omnia qua propter debent per inane quietum
aeque ponderibus non aequis concita ferri.
Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher
Book II, lines 238–239 (tr. Bailey)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)