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In any democracy, there is always a tug-of-war between policies to achieve equality and policies to promote excellence. I am certain that Canada can achieve both equality and excellence.

— John Turner

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More quotes by John Turner

We must never give up on this country! Never, never, never, never!

I'm not going to allow Mr. Mulroney to sell out our birthright, I'm not going to let Mr. Mulroney destroy a great 120 year old dream called Canada.

Democracy does not happen by accident.

I've told you and I've told the Canadian people, Mr. Mulroney, that I had no option.

In opposition, there's not much one can do. One doesn't have the carrot and one doesn't have the stick. One can't promote and one can't fire. And persuasion has its limits.

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Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.

Mikhail Bakunin The Red Association (1870)

The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.

Milton Friedman

It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.

Felix Frankfurter

It is not true that equality is a law of nature. nature has made nothing equal, her sovereign law is subordination and dependence.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues Reflections and Maxims (1746)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Turner (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.