To rest the case for equal treatment of national or racial minorities on the assumption that they do not differ from other men is implicitly to admit that factual inequality would justify unequal treatment, and the proof that some differences do, in fact, exist would not be long in forthcoming. It is of the essence of the demand for equality before the law that people should be treated alike in spite of the fact that they are different.
Interpretation
Equality should be based on the principle of treating everyone the same, regardless of differences.
Friedrich August Von Hayek emphasizes that true equality before the law requires treating individuals alike, despite their differences. He argues that if equality is based solely on the assumption that everyone is the same, it opens the door to justifying unequal treatment when differences are found. The core of his message is that the demand for equality must be grounded in a principle that transcends individual characteristics and acknowledges the need for consistent treatment under the law.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about civil rights movements to emphasize the importance of treating all individuals equally under the law.
What our generation has forgotten is that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves.
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.
It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress... it is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better.
Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion.
It is because freedom means the renunciation of direct control of individual efforts that a free society can make use of so much more knowledge than the mind of the wisest ruler could comprehend.
The importance of our being free to do a particular thing has nothing to do with the question of whether we or the majority are ever likely to make use of that particular possibility. To grant no more freedom than all can exercise would be to misconceive its function completely. The freedom that will be used by only one man in a million may be more important to society and more beneficial to the majority than any freedom that we all use.
Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment.
Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.
The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them.
The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever.
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
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