Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Equality
Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal.
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—Boswell’s Life of Johnson. (1763).
For the colonel’s lady an’ Judy O’Grady,
Are sisters under their skins.
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.
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.
Lincoln—Gettysburg Address. Nov. 19, 1863.
For some must follow, and some command
Though all are made of clay!
Longfellow—Keramos. L. 6.
Among unequals what society
Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. VIII. L. 383.
Et sceleratis sol oritur.
The sun shines even on the wicked.
Seneca—De Beneficiis. III. 25.
Equality of two domestic powers
Breeds scrupulous faction.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 47.
Mean and mighty, rotting
Together, have one dust.
Cymbeline. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 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.
King John. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 325.
She in beauty, education, blood,
Holds hand with any princess of the world.
King John. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 493.
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.
E. C. Stedman—A Madrigal. St. 3.
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.
Steele—Tatler. No. 225.
The tall, the wise, the reverend head,
Must be as low as ours.
Watts—Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Bk. II. Hymn 63.