Inequality Quotes

“[The rich] are like the pearl in the oyster: shiny indeed, and produced by the living body of the oyster, but at the same time somewhat extraneous to the organism.”
― Guido Alfani, As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West

“You have everything you want! You cleave to your principles, and you are a man with the advantage of station! This - this interaction with me - it doesn't degrade you. In the eyes of the world, it makes you a rake, but it makes me a whore.' He flinches, and she says it again, louder. 'Yes, a whore! And what of my principles? What of the way I'm looked at, sneered at even by your charwoman? Your mere mistress - and if you discarded me I'd have nothing.”
― Elizabeth Macneal, The Doll Factory

“They laugh at feminism from the comfort of privilege, blind to the chains it seeks to break.”
― Anubha Saxena

“The whole history of inequality regimes shows that what makes historical change possible is above all the existence of social and political mobilizations for change and concrete experimentation with alternative arrangements.”
― Thomas Piketty, Capital and Ideology

“A just society is one that allows all of its members access to the widest possible range of fundamental goods. Fundamental goods include education, health, the right to vote, and more generally to participate as fully as possible in the various forms of social, cultural, economic, civic, and political life. A just society organizes socioeconomic relations, property rights, and the distribution of income and wealth in such a way as to allow its least advantaged members to enjoy the highest possible life conditions. A just society in no way requires absolute uniformity or equality. To the extent that income and wealth inequalities are the result of different aspirations and distinct life choices or permit improvement of the standard of living and expansion of the opportunities available to the disadvantaged, they may be considered just. But this must be demonstrated, not assumed, and this argument cannot be invoked to justify any degree of inequality whatsoever, as it too often is.”
― Thomas Piketty, Capital and Ideology

“Hardship of justice is far more honorable than kinship of disparity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Right or Human: 300 Limericks of Inclusion

“After 1908, and especially after 1945, capitalist greed was somewhat reined in, not least due to the fear of Communism. Yet inequities are still rampant. The economic pie of 2014 is far larger than the pie of 1500, but it is distributed so unevenly that many African peasants and Indonesian labourers return home after a hard day’s work with less food than did their ancestors 500 years ago.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Necessary Equals by Stewart Stafford

The grandest hearth cannot warm,
Once grave chills touch the aged,
The beggar donates his last coin,
At a counting house of the well-waged.

The giant is meek and misunderstood,
As the slighted short one grows fiery,
Life's spun gold pawned for pennies,
The stricken strive to buy back entirely.

In old age, winter shadows lengthen,
As babes on tiptoes crave growth,
So-called leaders spit out patron's lies,
As a street madman roars his frank oath.

Opposing siblings they are, but needed,
Fellow travellers orbit on a path seeded.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Low-income countries face unique challenges that contribute to the elevated risk of road traffic fatalities. Insufficient investment in road infrastructure, limited emergency medical services, and a lack of awareness regarding safe road usage are among the key contributors. Bridging the gap in road safety standards between high- and low-income countries requires concerted efforts in the form of financial investment, educational initiatives, and robust regulatory frameworks.”
― Shivanshu K. Srivastava

“In the complex weave of existence, questions linger about why God crafted a world with both beauty and suffering. The intentions behind pain, inequality, and wars remain a profound mystery, challenging us to seek understanding in the midst of life's intricate design.”
― Jyoti Patel, NIRVANA: RAGA • DVESHA • MOHA

“You have to grab for happiness in places like this because there isn't enough to go around for everybody.”
― Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Friday Black

“She did not want to be a cliché or hackneyed example of an inner-city girl. She wanted to battle against the forces of poverty, low social status and the expectations of those who had passed the law that achievement for her kind was not attainable.”
― Colleen Smith-Dennis, Inner City Girl

“The people here had grown emaciated with hunger and toil, and the walls of their houses sighed with grief and sorrow. All the lovely flowers of this land had been transplanted to the palace to delight the eyes of the sovereign's consort, while the plump boars had been taken and served to please her sophisticated tastes. And so, the tranquil spring sun shone in vain on the grey, deserted streets of the city. And, perched atop a hill in the centre, the palace, shining with the five colours of the rainbow, towered over the corpse of the capital like a beast of prey.”
― Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, The Siren’s Lament: Essential Stories

“To replace the sky god with a computer god isn't advancement. Real advancement is when nobody suffers from scarcity of sustenance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Dreams don't come with a gender tag.”
― Anubha Saxena

“In the conservative ideologies of the rich and powerful, the principle of control is much more comfortable than is trust and support for self-organization. An ideology of control justifies intervention by those forces of containment, such as military and police, to maintain order and protect the structures of power and wealth. On the contrary, allowing an increase in the self-organization of processes might bring about more beneficial solutions for the whole, but could endanger the position of those now in control.”
― Jürgen Kriz, Self-Actualization

“There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that incites men to want to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the small to the rank of the great. But in the human heart a depraved taste for equality is also found that leads the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level and that reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in liberty.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America - Volume 1: The Original 1835 Edition Text

“Nothing says 'advanced society' like basing rights and opportunities on chromosomes.”
― Anubha Saxena

“The sickness that is white supremacy is killing us all, some more quickly than others.”
― Mikaela Loach, It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World

“... oppression is in the foundations of many of the systems that exist today and therefore simply changing who is at the top does not fix the fact that the system itself requires there to be people at the bottom.”
― Mikaela Loach, It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World

“A new world is utterly reliant on us being able to see the humanity in all people, even if those people can't see our humanity. It's a hard pill to swallow.”
― Mikaela Loach, It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World

“Capitalism requires there to be someone at the bottom to exploit from. It requires inequality. We can never have collective liberation under a system like this.”
― Mikaela Loach, It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World

“It is interesting how the advocates of social inequality think that the wealthy respond to quite different incentives from the poor. If the rich are to be persuaded to work, they require the stimulus of still greater wealth: hence the paramount importance of reducing taxes on high incomes. When dealing with the poor, in contrast, it is held that there is nothing like the prospect of still greater poverty as a work incentive: hence the paramount importance of strictly limiting the benefits to which they are entitled.”
― Paul Cockshott, Towards a New Socialism

“I hated the fact that I had to live with this fear, the fear of being helpless. [page 178]”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“I don't think I can do this anymore, do this facade of caring p.122”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“It just wasn't fair. All the things I had seen here, I would never forget. I just want to go home. Page 196”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“For the first time in a long time, I was free. Dirty, scarred, and hurt, but finally free.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“No no no, he can't do this, he was my protector, not this.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“Men globally need urgent lesson in basic mathematics regarding representation of women.
Any mention of equality of women inevitably give rise to questions of morality of women. There is a dire need to realize that there is no morality in inequality.”
― RAKHSHINDA PERVEEN

“El seu destí estava marcat des del seu naixament, no només per la seva sang, sinó pel seu sexe. Estava lligada a un marit per sobreviure, per a seguir avançant, i sense ell, no tindria cap valia.”
― JUDIT VARELA MARTÍNEZ, BITERNA