You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, "Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please." You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. And this is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact, and equality as a result.
quote by Lyndon B. Johnson
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It's equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.
quote by Robert Reich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Fair Go For All People
A fair go for all people to such I can relate
Whatever be their culture their race, beliefs or faith
Down with rank and class distinction and here's to the fair go
In an egalatarian society peace and harmony would grow
A fair go for all people how marvellous that would be
Outlaw discrimination and hunger and poverty
Outlaw rank and class distinction of them remove all trace
Make human rights a sacred thing as well as equality of race
The equality of humanity I may not live to see
Amongst Nations and different cultures it would lead to harmony
Egalatarianism amongst human kind of such we cannot boast
But a fair go for all people to that I will drink a toast
We cannot expect those different to respect us if respect to them we do not show
Here's to peace, justice, freedom and equality and to all a fair go.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
It was not their irritating assumption of equality that annoyed Nicholai so much as their cultural confusions. The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals.
Trevanian in Shibumi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.
quote by Irving Kristol
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
We Cannot Have Trust And Justice
We cannot have trust and justice if we deny the truth
If in the face of prejudice we do remain as mute
Where one race feels superior to another there never can be trust
Let us drink to equality and what is right and just
In our narrow society where rank is seen as good
And where the true meaning of equality by most not understood
We cannot have equality and a fair go for all
If not one prejudice free society of which one can recall
In the 21st century we have not learned from the past
For old prejudices and hatreds in our time seem to last
As long as there is an underclass and as long as there is poverty
We will never even take one step closer to equality
The past may be behind us but the past from us not gone
As discrimination, war and poverty are things that do live on.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Let my country be free
Let my country be free:
Free from poverty,
Free from inequality,
Free from debt,
Free from Unfair trade,
free from mal nutrition.
Free from scams,
Free from red tape,
Free from scandals,
Free from unfair elections,
Free from whole corruption.
Free from hatred,
Free from terror act,
Free from casteism,
Free from regionalism,
Free from class reservation.
Free from dirty politics.
Protection of human rights,
Equality in health and education,
Better law and order situation.
Governments’ accountability to citizen.
I want to see my country free, truly free.
(C) S.D. Tiwari
poem by S.D. Tiwari
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The bill neither confers nor abridges the rights of anyone but simply declares that in civil rights there shall be equality among all classes of citizens and that all alike shall be subject to the same punishment.
quote by Lyman Trumbull
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Opportunity And Ability
I was in Osmena Park
one sharp noon
Two twilight-aged folks
were talking while playing
chess board game
one said to his opponent
my son has the ability
but my son has no opportunity
and the other said
my son has opportunity
but my son lacks ability
I had learned
luck comes when opportunity and
ability meet
poem by Rommel Mark Dominguez Marchan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.
quote by Thomas Mann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
They have the ability to take a person's freedom from them. On certain situations, they have the ability to take a person's reputation. And under certain circumstances, they have the authority to take a person's life.
quote by Daryl Gates
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Statement Of Freedom!
i'm just not going to support your wars anymore,
i will not believe your propaganda.
i will not swallow your political lies.
i will not adhere to your moral and legal codes.
i will not follow your religious leaders.
i will not be enslaved by your way of life.
i will not be your patriot.
i will not sell my soul
to buy your American Dream...
i will not be twisted by your hates and fears.
i just wont!
because i have to live with myself,
and i'm the one i have to sleep with...
i will be true to my own heart,
follow my own mind,
and i choose to believe
both in dignity and equality.
i will be free.
you do not own me!
anyone that cannot accept this...
can kiss my ass!
i am free!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Innate Belief In Humane Human Nobility
time imposes questions upon humanity
all human cultures countries throughout ages
all must answer question of sphinx
as to how they will walk through time
individual will is weathered in time
beauty of mind endures past material
entropy destroys empires oppressive
aspiring intellect seeks freedom equality
governments of greed enslaving for profit
intolerant of free will fall before judgement
racial ethnic equality is God given birthright
dream search aspires complete soul self unity
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.
quote by Eric Hoffer
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
A woman's asking for equality in the church would be comparable to a black person's demanding equality in the Ku Klux Klan.
A demon, reservation
Gathered in the scorching sun
Wet with perspiration
Throats are dried up due to the stress of raising slogans
They are demanding reservation for their people
Their leaders are crying hoarse in their favour or
To get themselves in the lime-light
The demon of reservation is eating up
The country like white ants
Reservation is the bier of ability and skill
It brings inferiority among the deserved
For the share of their fortune is transferred
To the undeserved
It kills the instinct of competition
Reservation is not a fair step in the way of
The upliftment of downtrodden
or underprivileged
Our motto must be
'Liberty, equality, and fraternity'
We should provide equal opportunity of development
To all without any distinction.
poem by Mohammad Akmal Nazir
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I had explained that a woman's asking for equality in the church would be comparable to a black person's demanding equality in the Ku Klux Klan.
It is crucial that members of Congress cast votes that are supportive of the values upon which our nation was founded: equality, freedom, and opportunity for all people.
Non-Violence
non-violence...
the sacred actions
of flesh covered desire,
the only true path
on the quest for freedom...
the human being,
becoming fully human,
in the search for dignity,
and equality...
the message of the prophets,
the hope for a new day.
the battle cry of love!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Use Of The Word 'and
How did you use the word
'and'?
Like part and parcel
Like twins, same faces
With no meaning at all.
In all likeness
But I see how it is
Used in your country,
Liberty and equality,
How come? Did you not
Shiver with the way
How they are paired?
There may be liberty
But where is equality?
Or is it not an irony
That both in the context
Of “and”
they do not exist
at all
As free and equal?
this
liberty and justice
for all
i am
Just asking.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Destiny& Agony Fighting onwards but I cant fight away
Agony entangles me and around my soul
Fire storms down on a winter night
Moonlight shines its glorious light
Signs of the battle for what witch will be right
Open the gates and carry away there fright
Through the valley of the thunder
Deep in stormy winter ice
Its time now so roll the dice
Is this the old mans advice
Suffering this agony is this the price
To stand up for glorious freedom
Or fall down in shame
You cant fly away
You will have to stand up and face thus
Brothers of fallen swords
Rise tonight
Past agony, and despair
Fighting onwards but can not fight away
Destiny awaits thee
Open the gates
Forevermore we fight
Fighting for freedom
Till the sword frees thus
Open the gates
As we walk through with honor
For freedom we fight
Freedom of personal will
Our souls will carry out another day
It will shine and raise past the universe
Forevermore we stay free
Forevermore we will fight for freedom
Till sword have free thus
For the sword I live
And by the sword I will fight to I die
For eternity I'll fight onwards even if I cant fight away
Ill rise again for Valhalla will await me and I will be immortal
For destiny will come as my time to stand by Odin's will come forth
As I walk through the gates
I walk through with honor
Freedom I fight to the end
for now destiny lays greater then kings and hummed lands
Fighting onwards but can not fight away
For freedom I fight
For freedom I lost sight
But my soul carries on
For now I'm immortal
As I stand side by side
destiny I ride
So open up the gates
As I walk thought with honor
Oh I awaited thee
The day when the sword would free
So destiny could be
To open the gates,
and walk through with honor
As i stand side by side with Odin
I am now immortal
poem by Daniel fairfield
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!