It is not true that equality is a law of nature. Nature has no equality. Its sovereign law is subordination and dependence.

To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

—Marquis de Vauvenargues

When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.

—Marquis de Vauvenargues

The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.

—Marquis de Vauvenargues

Equality… is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.

—Hannah Arendt

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

—George Orwell

The love of democracy is that of equality.

—Charles de Montesquieu

In the state of nature… all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.

—Charles de Montesquieu

The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.

—Aristotle