QuoteProject
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.
Thomas Mann
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Freedom and equality can often conflict in democratic societies.

In this quote, Thomas Mann highlights the inherent tension between freedom and equality within a democratic system. He suggests that while both concepts are foundational to democracy, they can be contradictory because granting absolute freedom to individuals may undermine collective equality, just as the needs of society can overshadow individual rights.

Themes

FreedomEqualityDemocracySocietyIndividual

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate on civil rights, this quote can illustrate the struggle between personal freedoms and the pursuit of equality.

More from Thomas Mann

The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
Thomas MannRead
I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.
Thomas MannRead
Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form.
Thomas MannRead
The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity.
Thomas MannRead
One always has the idea of a stupid man as perfectly healthy and ordinary, and of illness as making one refined and clever and unusual.
Thomas MannRead

Similar quotes

No mariner ever enters upon a more uncharted sea than does the average human being born in the 20th century. Our ancestors know their way from birth through eternity; we are puzzled about the day after tomorrow.
Walter LippmannRead
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.
Baruch SpinozaRead
Going around this country, I have found a great hunger in America for spiritual revival; for a belief that law must be based on a higher law; for a return to traditions and values that we once had. Our government, in its most sacred documents - the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and all - speak of man being created, of a Creator; that we're a nation under God.
Ronald ReaganRead
The subjectivist states his judgements, whereas the objectivist sweeps them under the carpet by calling assumptions knowledge, and he basks in the glorious objectivity of science.
I. J. GoodRead
For all things are baptized at the font of eternity, and beyond good and evil; good and evil themselves, however, are but intervening shadows and damp afflictions and passing clouds.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.