Quotes about equal
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“I know that Americans of goodwill continue to hold a wide range of views on this issue. Opposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs. All of us who welcome today’s news should be mindful of that fact; recognize different viewpoints; revere our deep commitment to religious freedom. But today should also give us hope that on the many issues with which we grapple, often painfully, real change is possible. Shifts in hearts and minds is possible. And those who have come so far on their journey to equality have a responsibility to reach back and help others join them. Because for all our differences, we are one people, stronger together than we could ever be alone. That’s always been our story. We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality (June 2015)

Freedom, People, Heart, Hope

“We’ll advance human dignity by standing up for the rights of minorities, because no one’s equality should ever be denied. We will stand up for freedom of religion -- the right of every person to practice their faith as they choose -- because we are all children of God, and we are all fallible. And the notion that we, as a majority, or the state should tell somebody else what to believe with respect to their faith, is against our basic values. We will stand up for our gay and lesbian fellow citizens, because they need to be treated equally under the law. We will stand up for the rights and futures of our wives and daughters and partners, because I believe that the best measure of whether a nation is going to be successful is whether they are tapping the talents of their women and treating them as full participants in politics and society and the econ.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Queensland University Address (November 2014)

God, Faith, Religion, Law

“So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

1790s, Farewell Address (1796)

Country, War, Appearance, Evil

“Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel. This was in accordance with the Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton. This law tells us that for each reaction there is a reaction which is equal and opposite in direction. This can be useful in rocketry.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Law

“I appeal to history. Among the generals of Washington in the Revolutionary War were Greene, Putnam, and Lee, who were of English descent; Wayne and Sullivan, who were of Irish descent; Marion, who was of French descent; Schuyler, who was of Dutch descent, and Muhlenberg and Herkimer, who were of German descent. But they were all of them Americans and nothing else, just as much as Washington. Carroll of Carrollton was a Catholic; Hancock a Protestant; Jefferson was heterodox from the standpoint of any orthodox creed; but these and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence stood on an equality of duty and right and liberty, as Americans and nothing else.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)

War, History

“I’m hardly going to take morals lectures from the extreme left, who frankly are just as bad in this circumstance as people like Fraser Anning, they should equally be condemned.”

Peter Dutton (1970) Australian politician

Bad luck, People

“Russia today is a Soviet country, and its government is run by representatives of the workers and peasants. In some ways it it the most advanced country in the world. Whatever actual conditions may be, the whole structure of government and society is based on the principle of social equality.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book Glimpses of World History

Glimpses of World History (1949)

World, Way, Country

“In India, women have never been in hostile competition with men-even in the most distant past, every time a woman emerged as a leader, perhaps as a queen, the people accepted her. As something normal and not exceptional. Let’s not forget that in India the symbol of strength is a woman; the goddess Shakti. Not only that—the struggle for inde pendence here has been conducted in equal measure by men and by women. And when we got our independence, no one forgot that. In the Western world, on the other hand, nothing of the kind has ever happened—women have participated, yes, but revolutions have always been made by men alone.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Oriana Fallaci. Interview with Indira Gandhi in New Delhi, February 1972

Time, Hostility, Past, Forgetting

“Electric current, after passing into the earth travels to the diametrically opposite region of the same and rebounding from there, returns to its point of departure with virtually undiminished force. The outgoing and returning currents clash and form nodes and loops similar to those observable on a vibrating cord. To traverse the entire distance of about twenty-five thousand miles, equal to the circumference of the globe, the current requires a certain time interval, which I have approximately ascertained. In yielding this knowledge, nature has revealed one of its most precious secrets, of inestimable consequence to man. So astounding are the facts in this connection, that it would seem as though the Creator, himself, had electrically designed this planet just for the purpose of enabling us to achieve wonders which, before my discovery, could not have been conceived by the wildest imagination.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

A Means for Furthering Peace (1905)

Time, Imagination, Nature, Knowledge

“Aluminium, however, will not stop at downing copper. Before many years have passed it will be engaged in a fierce struggle with iron, and in the latter it will find an adversary not easy to conquer. The issue of the contest will largely depend on whether iron shall be indispensable in electric machinery. This the future alone can decide. The magnetism as exhibited in iron is an isolated phenomenon in nature. What it is that makes this metal behave so radically different from all other materials in this respect has not yet been ascertained, though many theories have been suggested. As regards magnetism, the molecules of the various bodies behave like hollow beams partly filled with a heavy fluid and balanced in the middle in the manner of a see-saw. Evidently some disturbing influence exists in nature which causes each molecule, like such a beam, to tilt either one or the other way. If the molecules are tilted one way, the body is magnetic; if they are tilted the other way, the body is non-magnetic; but both positions are stable, as they would be in the case of the hollow beam, owing to the rush of the fluid to the lower end. Now, the wonderful thing is that the molecules of all known bodies went one way, while those of iron went the other way. This metal, it would seem, has an origin entirely different from that of the rest of the globe. It is highly improbable that we shall discover some other and cheaper material which will equal or surpass iron in magnetic qualities.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy (1900)

Dependency, Future, Nature, Way

“We call on the United Nations once again to uphold the principle of universality and its multilateral efforts toward total inclusion and to allow Taiwan to participate in relevant extensions on a dignified and equal footing.”

Mswati III (1968) King of Swaziland

Mswati III (2019) cited in: " Allies voice support for Taiwan's inclusion in U.N. activities http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201909260004.aspx" in Focus Taiwan, 26 September 2019. Statement made during the General Debate of the 74th general assembly of the United Nations, 25 September 2019.

Universe, Effort

“Basava (twelfth century AD), a Saivite saint of South India was a religious teacher, social reformer, and revolutionary who opposed image worship, rejected the Vedas, and the authority of the priests and instituted complete equality among his followers, even equality for women. He was the founder of the Lingayat sect.”

Basava (1134–1196) a 12th-century Hindu philosopher, statesman, Kannada Bhakti poet of Lingayatism

Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, quoted in [Gandhi, Indira, Selected Thoughts of Indira Gandhi: A Book of Quotes, http://books.google.com/books?id=vJbcODokoHsC&pg=PA35, 1985, Mittal Publications, 35–, GGKEY:A2GGQ58B3WF, 35]

Women, Teachers

“Being religious equals being extremely loving, and being extremely loving equals being religious.”

Muhammad al-Baqir (677–733) fifth of the Twelve Shia Imams

[Mizan al-Hikmah, Muhammadi Reishahri, Muhammad, Dar al-Hadith, 2010, 2, Qum, 425]

Love, Making love

“I advise you to fear Allah alone, with no partner of associate. I advise you to treat the first Muhâjireen well and acknowledge their seniority. I advise you to treat the Ansār well, and show approval of those among them who do well, and forgive those among them who make mistakes. I advise you to treat the people of the outlying regions well, for they are a shield against the enemy and conduits of fay; do not take anything from them except that which is surplus to their needs. I advise you to treat the people of the desert well, for they are the original Arabs and the protectors of Islam. Take from the surplus of their wealth and give it to their poor. I advise you to treat ahl adh-dhīmmah well, to defend them against their enemies and not burden them with more than they can bear if they fulfill their duties towards the believers or pay the Jizyāh with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. I advise you to fear Allah and fear His wrath, lest you do anything wrong. I advise you to fear Allah with regard to the people, but do not fear the people with regard to Allah. I advise you to treat the people justly, and to devote yourself to looking after them and protecting them against their enemies. Do not show any favour to the rich over the poor. That will be better for your spiritual well being and will help to reduce your burden of sin, and it will be better for your Hereafter, until you meet the One Who knows what is in your heart. I instruct you to be strict with regard to the commands of Allah, His sacred limits and disobedience with all people, both relatives and others. Do not show any mercy to anyone until you have settled the score with him according to his offence. Treat all people as equal, and do not worry about who is as fault or fear the blame of the blamers. Beware of showing favouritism among the believers with regard to the fay that Allah has put you in charge of, lest that lead to injustice. Keep away from that. You are in a position between this world and the Hereafter. If you conduct your affairs justly in this world and refrain from indulgence, that will earn you faith and divine pleasure. I advise you not to let yourself or anyone else do wrong to ahl al-dhimmah. I advise you sincerely to seek thereby the Countenance of Allah and the Hereafter. I have chosen advice for you that I would offer to myself or my son. If you do as I have advised you and follow my instructions, you will have gained a great deal. If you don not accept it or pay attention to it, and do not handle your affairs in the way that pleases Allah, that will be a shortcoming on your part and you will have failed to be sincere, because whims and desires are the same and the cause of sin is Iblīs, who calls man to everything that will lead to his doom. He misguided the generations who came before you and led them to Hell, what a terrible abode. What a bad deal it is for a man to take the enemy of Allah as his friend, who calls him to disobey Allah. Adhere to the truth, strive hard to reach it and admonish yourself. I urge you by Allah to show mercy to the Muslims, honour their elderly, show compassion to their young ones and respect the knowledgeable ones among them. Do not harm them or humiliate them, and do not keep the fay for yourself lest you anger them. Do not deprive them of their stipends when they become due, thus making them poor. Do not keep them away on campaigns for so long that they end up having no children. Do not allow wealth to circulate only among the rich. Do not close your door to the people or allow the strong to oppress the weak. This is my advice to you, as Allah is my witness, and I greet you with peace.”

Umar (585–644) Second Caliph of Rashidun Caliphate and a companion of Muhammad

Umar ibn al-Khattab, Vol. 2, p. 389-390, also quoted in At-Tabqaat ul-Kabir, Vol. 3, p. 339
Last Advise

Sincerity, Forgiveness, Hell, Anger

“The question is not whether humans will become extinct, but rather when they will. If the anti-natalist arguments are correct, it would be better, all things being equal, if this happened sooner rather than later for, the sooner it happens, the more suffering and misfortune will be avoided.”

David Benatar (1966) South African philosopher

" Kids? Just say no: You don’t have to dislike children to see the harms done by having them. There is a moral case against procreation https://aeon.co/essays/having-children-is-not-life-affirming-its-immoral", Aeon (2017)

Suffering, Question

“The most successful relationships consist of compromises regarding expectations; all expectations are not equal, and therefore in each case one must judge the level of their individual desires.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1986

Success

“Feuerbach is the only one who has a serious, critical attitude to the Hegelian dialectic and who has made genuine discoveries in this field. He is in fact the true conqueror of the old philosophy. The extent of his achievement, and the unpretentious simplicity with which he, Feuerbach, gives it to the world, stand in striking contrast to the opposite attitude (of the others). Feuerbach’s great achievement is: (1) The proof that philosophy is nothing else but religion rendered into thought and expounded by thought, i.e., another form and manner of existence of the estrangement of the essence of man; hence equally to be condemned;(2) The establishment of true materialism and of real science, by making the social relationship of “man to man” the basic principle of the theory; (3) His opposing of the negation of the negation, which claims to be the absolute positive, the self-supporting positive, positively based on itself.”

Karl Marx book Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Source: Critique of the Hegelian Dialectic and Philosophy as a Whole, p. 64.
Source: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Religion, Support, Self-confidence, World

“Political Economy regards the proletarian … like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being. It leaves this to criminal law, doctors, religion, statistical tables, politics, and the beadle. … (1) What is the meaning, in the development of mankind, of this reduction of the greater part of mankind to abstract labor? (2) What mistakes are made by the piecemeal reformers, who either want to raise wages and thereby improve the situation of the working class, or — like Proudhon — see equality of wages as the goal of social revolution?.”

Karl Marx book Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Source: First Manuscript – Wages of Labour, p. 6.
Source: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Religion, Time, Law, Horse

“Human duty is at par to its fulfillment.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“You are all born free and equal, and free you shall all die.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“We believe in freedom with a passion that only those who have been denied it for so long can understand it. We believe in equality because so many in our nation have been denied for so long, we believe in human worth for that is the basis for all our current work in India.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Jul 29 1982 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHk9zoG6PXw

Freedom, Passion, Understanding

“The great need in the world today is for for nations to so define their national interest that it makes for greater harmony, greater equality and justice and greater stability in the world.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Source: 1980 to Roy Jenkins < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHk9zoG6PXw

Justice, World

“If seafood is expensive then don't eat it. Leave it to the wealthy. I cannot ensure equality in this manner. If you want to eat expensive items then you must work hard and find a lot of money....We cannot pull everyone to the same level.”

Prayut Chan-o-cha (1954) Thai military officer, junta chief, and politician

3 July 2015
Source: [National Broadcast by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister –July 3, 2015, http://www.thaigov.go.th/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=93453:93453&Itemid=399&lang=en, Royal Thai Government, 8 August 2015]

Money

“We embrace this dream altogether, regardless of our class, our region, and our religious community. All these are secondary to me compared to human dignity, compared to the respect for the human being and the individual, compared to the right of the Lebanese to enjoy security, safety, and equality without any discrimination whatsoever, this is what matters to me. We must build the state of today for the year 2000, we do not want to go backward, restore and build on the remnants of the state of 1943.”

Bachir Gemayel (1947–1982) Lebanese politician and militia commander

Source: History of the Kataeb Party

Communication, Dreams

“Bonding within a relationship requires sharing grief equally resulting from the loss of a significant family member or close friend. If the grief is not shared, the partner who encountered the loss, will feel alienated, disrespected and most importantly, alone.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1984

Family, Loss, Feeling

“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.”

Aristotle book Politics

Source: Politics, III. V. 8., https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aristotle-politics/1932/pb_LCL264.211.xml

Justice

“Those who are in love can be recognized immediately: they never feel equal to their loved one.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Chi è innamorato si riconosce subito: non si sente mai all'altezza della persona amata.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Feeling

“Life minus love equals zero.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Love, Life

“We can either emphasize those aspects of our traditions, religious or secular, that speak of hatred, exclusion, and suspicionwork with those that stress the interdependence and equality of all human beings. The choice is yours. (22)”

Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain

Source: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

“In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

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. Le Lys Rouge http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Lys_rouge/VII [The Red Lily] (1894), ch. 7 Variant: 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.

Law, Sleep

“Tell the angel who will watch over your life to pray now and then for a man who, like Satan, believed himself for an instant to be equal to God, but who realized in all humility that supreme power and wisdom are in the hands of God alone.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Life, Wisdom, God, Angels

“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

“To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

World, Color

“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

love, Relationship, Cute, Romantic

“Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.
- Humbug”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“Those who know the TRUTH are not equal to those who love it.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Love, Truth

“(Men without ambition are boring)
And that attitude, mistress, is why the females of your kind continue to struggle for equality. And why they continue to fail.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Storm Born

Men

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer

"The End"; The last full song track of Abbey Road (1969) the last Beatles album to be recorded before the band broke up. (Let It Be was the last album released, but had been recorded earlier.)
Lyrics, The Beatles
Source: The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics

Birthday, love, Relationship, Cute

“The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.”

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Of the Union and Internal Prosperity of the Roman Empire, in the Age of the Antonines" http://www.ccel.org/ccel/gibbon/decline/files/volume1/chap2.htm. The portion regarding the views of the religions of the time taken by various constituencies has been misreported as Gibbon's own assessment of religion generally. See Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions (1990), pp. 34–35. The bold text has been misattributed to Lucretius and Seneca the Younger. The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776) Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Context: The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. Context: The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. The superstition of the people was not embittered by any mixture of theological rancour; nor was it confined by the chains of any speculative system. The devout polytheist, though fondly attached to his national rites, admitted with implicit faith the different religions of the earth. Fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream or an omen, a singular disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed him to multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge the list of his protectors. The thin texture of the Pagan mythology was interwoven with various but not discordant materials.

People, World, Falseness

“One and one and one and one doesn't equal four. Each one remains unique, there is no way of joining them together. They cannot be exchanged, one for the other. They cannot replace each other.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Way

“The characters in my novels are my own unrealised possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

“Newton's Third Law of Conversation, if it existed, would hold that every statement implies an equal and opposite statement. To say that I'd turned the offer down raised the possibility that I might not have done.”

Hugh Laurie book The Gun Seller

Source: The Gun Seller

Law

“If men were equal in America, all these Poles and English and Czechs and blacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as foreigner; there were only free men and slaves.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Source: The Killer Angels

Men

“Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.”

Erich Fromm book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving (1956), Ch. 2

“Compromise built upon compromise equals failure.”

Lysa TerKeurst

Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food

Failure

“Impaler,’ she declared, ‘I have no equal.”

Kim Newman (1959) English novelist

Anno Dracula

“Our minds work alike, she thought. She had found her partner, her equal, the one to work and live and love with her. Her soulmate.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 2

Love

“The older Nico got, the more juvenile Percy seemed to him, though Percy was three years older. Nico found his sense of humour equal parts endearing and annoying. He decided to concentrate on the annoying.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Sense, Parting

“Before him he saw two roads, both equally straight; but he did see two; and that terrified him--he who had never in his life known anything but one straight line. And, bitter anguish, these two roads were contradictory.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Life

“I've been fighting my entire adult life for men and women everywhere to be equal and to be different. But there is one right I would not grant anyone. And that is the right to be indifferent.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Life, Women, Men, Fight

“Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

“Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book III, Ch. 5
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays

Marriage, Bird

“I wished that love could be simple, that it was always given and returned in the same measure, equally and at the same time, that all the planets aligned in a perfect way to dispel all doubts, that it was easy to understand and never painful.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

Love, Pain, Way, Understanding

“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“A fair and just society offers equality of opportunity to all. But it cannot promise, and should not try to enforce, sameness.”

Christina Hoff Sommers (1950) American author and philosopher

“somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence.
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you always open petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously)her first rose or if it be your wish to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly
as the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries
rendering death and forever with each breathing”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

W [ViVa] (1931) LVII

Life, Death, World, Travel

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

From Created Equal, an episode of the PBS Free to Choose television series (1980, vol. 5 transcript) http://www.freetochoosemedia.org/broadcasts/freetochoose/detail_ftc1980_transcript.php?page=5. Variant: The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.

Freedom

“There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Love, People, Idea

“If a man looks upon any other man and estimates that man as less than himself, then he is stealing from the other. He is stealing the other's birthright - that of equality.”

Neville Goddard (1905–1972) American author and lecturer

“I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

Hate, Funny

“Equally disquieting are the times when we do make a choice, only to later feel as though we have murdered some other aspect of our being by settling on one single concrete decision.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Feeling, Decision, Time

“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”

Stephen Jay Gould book The Panda's Thumb

"Wide hats and narrow minds" https://books.google.com/books?id=-lWtVSZoqWkC&pg=PA776 New Scientist 8 March 1979, p. 777. Reprinted in The Panda's Thumb, p. 151 https://books.google.com/books?id=z0XY7Rg_lOwC&pg=PA151. Source: The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

People

“Equality and freedom are not luxuries to lightly cast aside. Without them, order cannot long endure before approaching depths beyond imagining.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

Imagination, Freedom

“I guess 14% plus Jesus equals victory”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Victory

“If it ever occurs to people to value the honour of the mind equally with the honour of the body, we shall get a social revolution of a quite unparalleled sort.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Gaudy Night

Source: Gaudy Night

People

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the House of Commons (October 22, 1945) "Demobilisation" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1945/oct/22/demobilisation#column_1703 Post-war years (1945–1955) Variant: The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

“Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Loneliness

“While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Source: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

Men, Housing

“Women are already born so far ahead ability-wise. The day men can give birth, that's when we can start talking about equal rights.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Women, Men, Birth

“Her throat ached: adoration, heartbreak, in equal measure. “Kiss me,” she said. “Please.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Kiss

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery..”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Failure, Envy

“It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die--neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave.”

E.M. Forster book Howards End

Source: Howards End

“That all men are equal is a proposition which at ordinary times no sane individual has ever given his assent.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

"The Idea of Equality"
Source: Proper Studies (1927)

Men, Time

“Success and failure are equally disastrous.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright

Failure, Success

“Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Motivation

“I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting, " he explained. "I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Men, Confidence, Victory, Fight

“Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.”

Elizabeth Peters book The Mummy Case

Source: The Mummy Case

Marriage

“Deep down inside, my heart knew the score.
And I know that Haven was wrong.
It's not always a case of one loving more than the other.
When two people are truly meant to be, they love equally.
Differently - but still equal.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Love, People, Heart

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Variant: Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Failure

“That we cannot rise equal to situations when we are in them — that is the tragedy of life.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin Henry Miller, 1932-1953

Life

“Falling into ruin was a bit like falling in love: Both descents stripped you bare and left you as you were at your core. And both endings are equally painful.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

Love, Pain

“Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“A woman's never too old to make an idiot of herself. It goes along with equality of the sexes and potty parity.”

Janet Evanovich Three to Get Deadly

Source: Three to Get Deadly

Sex

“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

“After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.”

Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996) Russian and American poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate

Life

“All men are created equal. It is what you do from there that makes the difference. We are all free agents in life. We make our own decisions. We control our own destiny.”

Glenn Beck book An Inconvenient Book

The Income Gap: The Rich Get Richer, Good for Them
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems
2007-11-20
Threshold Editions
1416560440
83
2000s

Life, Men, Decision

“Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable.”

Primo Levi book If This Is a Man

If This Is a Man (1947)
Context: Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition, which is opposed to everything infinite. Our ever-insufficient knowledge of the future opposes it: and this is called, in the one instance, hope, and and in the other, uncertainty of the following day. The certainty of death opposes it: for it places a limit on every joy, but also on every grief. The inevitable material cares oppose it: for as they poison every lasting happiness, they equally assiduously distract us from our misfortunes and make our consciousness of them intermittent and hence supportable.

Life, Perfection, Happiness

“The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1820s, Letter to A. Coray (1823)
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson
Context: The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Modern times have the signal advantage, too, of having discovered the only device by which these rights can be secured, to wit: government by the people, acting not in person, but by representatives chosen by themselves, that is to say; by every man of ripe years and sane mind, who either contributes by his purse or person to the support of his country.

Happiness