“Nature is unfair? So much the better, inequality is the only bearable thing, the monotony of equality can only lead us to boredom”

“Equality can only exist between equals.Civilization implies division of labor, division of labor implies subordination and subordination implies injustice and inequality.”

“The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.”

“We all die someday." Maybe the only thing that makes that fact bearable is the idea that death is the only way we can return to the stars.”

“From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time”

“There is also the basic inequality of being born either with a natural talent or without one. Clever or stupid. No matter how much you try to argue against it, Dora, we are not born equal. All we can ever strive for is the equality of opportunity for those who have the ability to make the most of it.”