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“No child should inherit disadvantage merely because of the circumstances of birth. Public policy must strive to ensure that opportunity is determined by effort and ability rather than geography, family background, or economic status. Equality of opportunity remains one of the most powerful instruments for social harmony and national advancement.”

Last update Sept. 26, 2026. History

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p. 71. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027924509#page/n100/mode/1up <br class="br"> Records (1919) https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027924509#page/n0/mode/1up

“Equal justice and equal opportunity are ideals we should seek, but we should recognize that humans administer the ideals and that humans do not have equal ability.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

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Context: In the beginning I was just as ready as anyone to fall into step, to seek out the guilty and to punish the sinners, even to become a leader. Nothing, I felt, would give me more gratification than riding the steed of yellow journalism into crusade, doing the book that would right the old wrongs.
Reevaluation raised haunting questions. I now believe that evolution, or deevolution, never ends short of death, that no society has ever achieved an absolute pinnacle, that all humans are not created equal. In fact, I believe attempts to create some abstract equalization create a morass of injustices that rebound on the equalizers. Equal justice and equal opportunity are ideals we should seek, but we should recognize that humans administer the ideals and that humans do not have equal ability.