quote · Legacy record
Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal (...). There is a tendency (...) for certain people to use this phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions. The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious-because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe-some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others-some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.
Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal (...). There is a tendency (...) for certain people to use this phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions. The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious-because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe-some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others-some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.
Approximate author period: c. 1971 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Harper Lee
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1971 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1926 to 2016; Wikidata Q182658, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q182658 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 49408; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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