137 Social Inequality Quotes

Following is our list of social inequality quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about social equality.

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Famous Social Inequality Quotes

Inequality is the root of social evil. - Pope Francis

Inequality is the root of social evil. — Pope Francis

Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, brutalizes our lower class. — Matthew Arnold

You have to be interested in inequality. The issue of inequality and that of poverty are not separable. — Amartya Sen

Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power. — Paul Krugman

It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence. — Voltaire

Indias rigid social structure limits intergenerational economic mobility and fosters acceptance of vast wealth disparities. — Steven Rattner

The gap in education in this country, the unfairness of the schools, is one of the great unfairness in this society. — Gaston Caperton

Environmental challenges have the power to deny equality of opportunity and hold back the progress of communities. — Lisa P. Jackson

The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes. — John Maynard Keynes

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair. — John F. Kennedy

It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence. - Voltaire

It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence. — Voltaire

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people. — Thomas Jefferson

Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities. — Pope Francis

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. - Aristotle

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. — Aristotle

Short Social Inequality Quotes

  • Gender inequality is not one problem, it's a collection of problems. — Amartya Sen
  • When inequality gets to an extreme, it is completely useless for growth. — Thomas Piketty
  • An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. — Plutarch
  • Poverty is the deprivation of opportunity. — Amartya Sen
  • Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions -- it only guarantees equality of opportunity. — Irving Kristol
  • Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity. — Irving Kristol
  • We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Social Inequality Image Quotes

Social inequality quote Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.
Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.

Economic Inequality Quotes

A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little. — Bernie Sanders

Today, the top one-tenth of 1% owns nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The economic game is rigged, and this level of inequality is unsustainable. We need an economy that works for all, not just the powerful. — Bernie Sanders

God, how patient are Thy poor! These corporations and masters of manipulation in finance heaping up great fortunes by a system of legalized extortion, and then exacting from the contributors-to whom a little means so much-a double share to guard the treasure! — Sayings

I know that there are no limits to which the powers of privilege will not go to keep the workers in slavery — Mother Jones

To deal with radicalism and extremism, we need to deal with economic inequality. This is what I learned from my experience in Solo and then in Jakarta. — Joko Widodo

I'm against having a Fed. It's socialism in its worst form. But until the Fed is gotten rid of, the only economic variable the poor have to counteract the injustices of the Fed is the minimum wage law. — Max Keiser

Trickle down economics is a fraud. Giving tax breaks to the rich and large corporations does not create jobs. It simply makes the rich richer, enlarges the deficit and increases income and wealth inequality. We need economic policies which benefit working families, not the billionaire class. — Bernie Sanders

When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money. — Alice Adams

The coming change can only come through a revolution, because the possessing class will not allow a peaceful change to take place; still we are willing to work for peace at any price, except at the price of liberty. — Lucy Parsons

In the long run men inevitably become the victims of their wealth. They adapt their lives and habits to their money, not their money to their lives. It preoccupies their thoughts, creates artificial needs, and draws a curtain between them and the world. — Herbert Croly

Social Equality Quotes

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 Churchill

Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility. — Olympe de Gouges

A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody. — George Bernard Shaw

Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education. — Julian Bond

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. — Alexis de Tocqueville

Inequality can be done away with only by establishing a new society, where men and women will enjoy equal rights, resulting from an upheaval in the means of production and in all social relations. Thus, the status of women will improve only with the elimination of the system that exploits them. — Thomas Sankara

All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. — Chief Joseph

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. — Winston Churchill

Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them. — B. R. Babasaheb Ambedkar

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Social Class Quotes

The university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class. — Michel Foucault

When we speak for the poor, please note that we do not take sides with one social class. What we do is invite all social classes, rich and poor, without distinction, saying to everyone let us take seriously the cause of the poor as though it were our own. — Oscar Romero

Our movement took a grip on cowardly Marxism and from it extracted the meaning of socialism. It also took from the cowardly middle-class parties their nationalism. Throwing both into the cauldron of our way of life there emerged, as clear as a crystal, the synthesis -- German National Socialism. — Hermann Goring

Our movement took a grip on cowardly Marxism and from it extracted the meaning of socialism. It also took from the cowardly middle-class parties their nationalism. Throwing both into the cauldron of our way of life there emerged, as clear as a crystal, the synthesis -- German National Socialism. — Hermann Goering

It would be extremely naive to expect the dominant classes to develop a type of education that would enable subordinate classes to perceive social injustices critically. — Paulo Freire

The point of my work is to show that culture and education arent simply hobbies or minor influences. They are hugely important in the affirmation of differences between groups and social classes and in the reproduction of those differences. — Pierre Bourdieu

Genocide begins, however improbably, in the conviction that classes of biological distinction indisputably sanction social and political discrimination. — Andrea Dworkin

Socialism is nothing but the capitalism of the lower classes. - Oswald Spengler

Socialism is nothing but the capitalism of the lower classes. — Oswald Spengler

The real struggle isn’t proletariat vs bourgeois. It’s between high-status elites and wealthy elites. When their cooperation breaks, revolution. — Naval Ravikant

The favorite device of the devil, ancient and modern, is to force a human being into a more or less artificial class, accuse the class of unnamed and unnameable sin, and then damn any individual in the alleged class, however innocent he may be. — W. E. B. Du Bois

Social Injustice Quotes

True religion is a revolutionary force: it is an inveterate enemy of oppression, privilege, and injustice. — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera. — Gordon Parks

I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave. I will oppose it with all the moral powers with which I am endowed. I am no advocate of passivity. — Lucretia Mott

The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice. - Paul Robeson

The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice. — Paul Robeson

Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex. — Karl Marx

Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice. — Harry S. Truman

National injustice is the surest road to national downfall. — William E. Gladstone

Peace is not just the absence of mass destruction, but a positive internal and external condition in which people are free so that they can grow to their full potential. — Petra Kelly

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Once causes are determined, then there is talk of "social injustice" and the privileged begin to resist. — Gustavo Gutiérrez

Social Justice Quotes

Education means to bring out wisdom. Indoctrination means to push in knowledge. — Dick Gregory

We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help free the other half. — Emmeline Pankhurst

Together, hand in hand, with our matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country. — Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Hate speech it seems to be is been defined by the political left as anything we don't like, anything that violates social justice doctrines, feminism, Black Lives Matter kind of ideology. It is not something that I have ever heard particularly effectively defined. — Milo Yiannopoulos

In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism. — Shirley Chisholm

But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why? — Walter E. Williams

One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. - Crazy Horse

One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. — Crazy Horse

I tell young people to prepare themselves as best they can for a world that grows more challenging every day-get the best education they can, and couple that education with real-life experience in social justice work. — Julian Bond

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. — Dorothy Day

Living on borders and in margins, keeping intact one's shifting and multiple identity and integrity, is like trying to swim in a new element, an "alien" element. — Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Income Inequality Quotes

By tying minimum wage to money supply, the poor's income would rise and fall with the rise and fall in money supply. — Max Keiser

Half the U.S. population owns barely 2 percent of its wealth, putting the United States near Rwanda and Uganda and below such nations as pre-Arab Spring Tunisia and Egypt when measured by degrees of income inequality. — Eric Alterman

By some estimates, income and wealth inequality are near their highest levels in the past hundred years, much higher than the average during that time span and probably higher than for much of American history before then. — Sayings

There is far too little discussion in Washington about the collapse of the middle class , almost no discussion at all about the incredible income inequality and wealth inequality in this country, and the fact that we're moving toward an oligarch form of society. — Bernie Sanders

Income inequality has no necessary connection with poverty, the lack of material resources for a decent life, such as adequate food, shelter, and clothing. A society with great income inequality may have no poor people, and a society with no income inequality may have nothing but poor people. — Robert Higgs

I think the issue of income and wealth inequality is in fact a moral issue. — Bernie Sanders

In our society it is murder, psychologically, to deprive a man of a job or an income. You are in substance saying to that man that he has no right to exist. You are in a real way depriving him of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, denying in his case the very creed of his society. — Sayings

Here's what income and wealth inequality is about. Last year, the top 25 hedge fund managers made more than 24 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 425,000 public school teachers. This level of inequality is neither moral or sustainable — Bernie Sanders

The past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority. — Janet Yellen

Increasing inequality in income distribution in this country has broader policy implications, and there is also the growing problem of perverse incentives that result from executives receiving grossly disproportionate compensation based on decisions they themselves take. — Barney Frank

Gender Inequality Quotes

Gender equality, historically has been predominantly a women's movement for women. But I think the impact of gender inequality and how it's affecting men hasn't really been addressed. — Sayings

I have lectured at the U.N. and travelled widely, giving lectures on human rights and gender inequalities in universities. But this is a life I do not wish to live. I don't want to be a showcase, I want to be in a battlefield where I can stand beside the oppressed and the poor. — Taslima Nasrin

The church is an organisation that institutionalises an aversion to homosexuality, it institutionalises gender inequality and it speaks from a place of teaching people being ashamed of their sexuality. — Hozier

One feels so despairing on some levels about what's going on in our culture, in regards to things like gender inequality. But there is progress. There is enhanced empathy and respect for others, we are fighting the tide, even though it seems like a tug of war sometimes. — Uma Thurman

We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved...We want to try to galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change and we don't just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that it's tangible. — Emma Watson

I think there's so many things happening, whether it's gender inequality or immigration, there's just so many issues happening around the world where not doing anything makes you guilty. — Lilly Singh

Woman cannot be free until man's mind is liberated from the megalomania! His self-exaltation is the mother of the gender inequalities. Till we eliminate his exacerbated narcissism, woman will remain unfree! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

While gender stereotypes can have negative impacts on men as well, the vast majority of structural gender inequality: socially, politically, professionally and economically, as well as the overwhelming burden of sexual violence is disproportionately borne by women. — Laura Bates

The more women help one another, the more we help ourselves. Acting like a coalition truly does produce results. Any coalition of support must also include men, many of whom care about gender inequality as much as women do. — Sheryl Sandberg

The historical weight of gender inequality has tended to concentrate women in lower-paid jobs with fewer benefits, at the same time made them primarily responsible for care giving. — Stephanie Coontz

People Writing About Social Inequality

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen
quotes on poverty, economics and justice

142 3757
Read quotes by Pope Francis

Pope Francis
quotes on love, youth and hope

1329 6540
Read quotes by Voltaire

Voltaire
quotes on life, government and human nature

756 16591
Read quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
quotes on courage, leadership and equality

1171 25085
Read quotes by Irving Kristol

Irving Kristol
quotes on education, leadership and freedom

43 265
Read quotes by Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold
quotes on poetry, culture

236 917

More Social Inequality Quotes

I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. — Eugene V. Debs

I recognize that globalization has helped many people rise out of poverty, but it has also damned many others to starve to death. It is true that global wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities have also grown and new poverty arisen. — Pope Francis

Socialism violates at least three of the Ten Commandments: It turns government into God, it legalizes thievery and it elevates covetousness. Discussions of income inequality, after all, aren't about prosperity but about petty spite. Why should you care how much money I make, so long as you are happy? — Ben Shapiro

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. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

To live in a culture in which women are routinely naked where men aren't is to learn inequality in little ways all day long. So even if we agree that sexual imagery is in fact a language, it is clearly one that is already heavily edited to protect men's sexual - and hence social - confidence while undermining that of women. — Naomi Wolf

The world is a ladder for some to go up and others down. — American Proverbs

All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities. — James F. Cooper

The major economic policy challenges facing the nation today - pick your favorites among the usual suspects of low public and household savings, concerns about educational quality and achievement, high and rising income inequality, the large imbalances between our social insurance commitments and resources - are not about monetary policy. — Timothy Geithner

If a basketball franchise pays my neighbor Kobe Bryant $20 million a year because it takes that much to get him, fine. But if hedge fund managers bribe politicians to put a clause in the laws cutting the tax rate on much of their income to a fraction of the percentage the average worker pays, I object. — Edward O. Thorp

I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice. — Arne Duncan

Health inequalities and the social determinants of health are not a footnote to the determinants of health. They are the main issue. — Michael Marmot

More money is put into prisons than into schools. That, in itself, is the description of a nation bent on suicide. I mean, what is more precious to us than our own children? We are going to build a lot more prisons if we do not deal with the schools and their inequalities. — Jonathan Kozol

There can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental degradation, and as long as the weak and small continue to be trodden by the mighty and powerful. — Dalai Lama

Feminism isn't simply about being a woman in a position of power. It's battling systemic inequities; it's a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged. — Jessica Valenti

We have to put reduction of health inequalities at the centre of our public health strategy and that will require action on the social determinants of health. — Michael Marmot

The Internet is the great equalizer.The technology which emanated from the Silicon Valley of California has more potential to ameliorate social inequality than any development in the history of the world, including the industrial revolution. — Benazir Bhutto

The problem with our education system is not that parents do not have a choice. The problem is that inequities continue to exist. — Patsy Mink

Americans have so far put up with inequality because they felt they could change their status. They didn't mind others being rich, as long as they had a path to move up as well. The American Dream is all about social mobility in a sense - the idea that anyone can make it. — Fareed Zakaria

How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak? — Isabel Allende

Health and health inequalities tell us a great deal about the good or bad effects of social policies. — Michael Marmot

Unfortunately, violence against women is not the only injustice women face globally; it is one of the many inequalities that impede the full development of socially excluded women globally. — Zainab Salbi

The scientific approach uncovers, that Communism does not eliminate the inequality between men, the social injustice, exploitation of man by man and other evils of society - communism merely changes their form and gives birth to new evils, which become eternal fellow-travelers of communism. — Alexander Zinoviev

General improvements in health/decline in mortality do not affect all classes equally. As mortality rates fall, social inequalities commonly widen. — Michael Marmot

The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security. — Pope Benedict XVI

The difference between rich and poor is becoming more extreme, and as income inequality widens the wealth gap in major nations, education, health and social mobility are all threatened. — Helene D. Gayle

Today, you have 20 percent of the world controlling 80 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; you've got a $30 trillion (US) world economy, and $24 trillion of it is in the developed countries... These inequities can't exist. So if you are talking about systemic breakdown, I think you have to look in terms of social breakdown. — James Wolfensohn

But it is also clear that left entirely untouched by public policy, the capitalist system will produce more inequality than is socially healthy or than is necessary for maximum efficiency. — Barney Frank

We are always making God our accomplice so that we may legalize our own inequities. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Excessive economic, social and cultural inequalities among peoples arouse tensions and conflicts, and are a danger to peace. — Pope Paul VI

On inequality, I contend that far too much of the nation's wealth and income is gravitating to too few. This undermines the democracy we all cherish and the overall social cohesion necessary to maintain our wonderfully successful society. — James Stone

When the wilderness movement emerged, it emerged separate from the issue of social inequality and the economic problems of survival. It was a preservationist ecology movement created by an occupying culture. Clearly, a wilderness movement started by Native Americans would not have had the same roots. — Vandana Shiva

I think of the difficulties which, in various countries, today afflicts the world of work and business; I think of how many, and not just young people, are unemployed, many times due to a purely economic conception of society, which seeks selfish profit, beyond the parameters of social justice. — Pope Francis

Comedy is grievances. It's a recitation of grievances - whether they're inconsequential, superficial - like "my wife shops too much", or "kids today", all those old-fashioned themes - or, if it's deeper, and somewhat more thoughtful, about social imbalance and inequities, and the folly of human behavior. It's usually a complaint. — George Carlin

The biggest danger I feel are an emerging group of Westernised, educated, champagne socialists and latte liberals who pontificate about social inequality, democracy and freedom in the comfort of their condos. — Calvin Cheng

consumption can be very harmful to the world. I'm not a big proponent of the idea that consumption makes you morally bad, but there are consequences to our acts, and those consequences are environmental degradation and the huge social inequalities that make our standard of living in the United States possible. — Judith Levine

I've been talking about things like reversing the rise of inequality and strengthening social mobility,since before it was cool. — Barack Obama

Engaging with children in troublesome thinking is problematic, but important. Ignoring the hard stuff and only engaging in the fluff and fun from curriculum choices is to keep underground issues of social justice and to further silence and compound the inequity — Janet Robertson

The entire social order ... is arrayed against a woman who wants to rise to a man's reputation. — Madame de Stael

Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all. Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance. Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities. Charity separates the rich from the poor; aid raises the needy and sets him on the same level with the rich. — Eva Peron

Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity are everything. There would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had done great things, and never the idiots whose mothers had spoiled them and whose fathers had left them a hundred thousand a year; and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why idiots are always in favor of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favor of equality. — George Bernard Shaw

There's no doubt that inequality destabilizes societies. I think the social science evidence on that front is crystal clear. — Jordan Peterson

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