"The equality of rights of all citizens is the basic tenet of modern democratic societies."

Jacques Maritain Literature See all quotes by Jacques Maritain →

React to this quote

More by Jacques Maritain

“When one's function is to teach the loftiest wisdom, it is difficult to resist the temptation to believe that until you have spoken, nothing has been said.”

“What we need is not truths that serve us but a truth we may serve.”

“To be free is of the essence of every intellectual being.”

“It is not possible to escape from the results of the irruption of faith into the structures of our knowledge.”

“In so far as we are individuals, each of us is a fragment of a species, a part of this universe, a single dot in the immense network of forces and influences, cosmic, ethnic, historic, whose laws we obey. We are subject to the determination of the physical world. But each man is also a person, he is not subject to the stars and atoms; for he subsists entirely with the very subsistence of his spiritual soul, and the latter is in him a principle of creative unity, of independence and of freedom.”

“In each of us there dwells a mystery, and that mystery is the human personality.”

Resonant Thoughts

"When a photon comes down, it interacts with electrons throughout the glass, not just on the surface. The photon and electrons do some kind of dance, the net result of which is the same as if the photo…"

— Richard Feynman

Science1918–1988

#justice

"The London office of the International Council for University Development was in Queen Street. Edwin hesitated outside, adjusting his cap, tightening the knot of his tie, smoothing his pyjama collar. …"

— Anthony Burgess

Music1917–1993

#justice

"What can be just as hard to see as problems-in-the-making is that a good many "problems" aren't really problems to begin with. People who don't see situations for what they are often struggle against …"

— Benjamin Hoff

Literature1946

#justice

"At every turn, the struggle for equality was resisted by many of the powerful. And some have said we should not judge their failures by the standards of a later time, yet in every time there were men …"

— George W. Bush

Politics1824–1900

#time