John Wilmot Quotes

Even if their outward fortunes could be absolutely equalized, there would be, from individual constitution alone, an aristocracy and a democracy in every land. The fearful by nature would compose an aristocracy, the hopeful by nature a democracy, were all other causes of divergence done away.

Nature also forges man, now a gold man, now a silver man, now a fig man, now a bean man.

They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another;' a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory.

Man as a pure animal does not exist.

It's interesting to see how we are all uniquely different.

It will never be possible to eliminate the fact that human beings have different levels of knowledge and consciousness

Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal.

The difference between people are really great in terms of the level of their aspirations.

All men are created equal in one respect, at least, and that is their desire to be unequal.

Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good as someone else.

I have no patience with the hypothesis occasionally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good, that babies are born pretty much alike, and that the sole agencies in creating differences between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It is in the most unqualified manner that I object to pretensions of natural equality. The experiences of the nursery, the school, the University, and of professional careers, are a chain of proofs to the contrary.

By his intellect, [man] is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal.

We are civilized human beings, but we're all animals deep down, and that creates a certain friction in all of us.

All men are born equal, but some of them outgrow it.

Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.

Are all humans human, or are some more human than others?

We must get rid of the silly, sloppy idea that all people are equal in capacity.

You are hierarchical. That's the older and more entrenched characteristic. We saw it in your closest animal relatives and in your most distant ones. It's a terrestrial characteristic. When human intelligence served it instead of guiding it, when human intelligence did not even acknowledge it as a problem, but took pride in it or did not notice it at all... That was like ignoring cancer.

I'll get kicked around for saying it, but men and women are just different. They're not equal. The same way that you and I are not equal.

All sectarian religions take for granted that all men are equal. This is not warranted by science. There is more difference between minds than between bodies. One fundamental doctrine of Hinduism is that all men are different, there being unity in variety. Even for a drunkard, there are some Mantras-even for a man going to a prostitute!

What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?

All men [are] of one metal, but not in one mold.

Animals we are, and animals we remain, and the path to our regeneration and happiness, if there be such a path, lies through our animal nature.

Every character is in some respects uniform, and in others inconsistent; and it is only by the study both of the uniformity and inconsistency, and a comparison of them with each other, that the knowledge of man is acquired.

You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either. And until you make the final discovery that there are only human beings, who are therefore all the more fascinating, you are liable to miss something.