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> I've always remembered a quote from Jefferson concerning the inequality
> of treating unequal people equally. Would it be too much trouble for you
> to send me the correct text of the quote and its reference?
>
> Thanks for you assistance.
The quote you are searching for is probably this one:
"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of
unequal people."
It is my opinion that the quote is almost certainly NOT by Jefferson. I
mention it briefly under my essay, "Spurious Jefferson Quotes," and go
into more detail in the essay, "Educational Elitism," both of which are
included in The Jeffersonian Perspective (see URL below).
I have included below the couple of paragraphs I wrote under "Spurious
Jefferson Quotes." As I say in a later part of that essay, it is very
difficult to prove a negative, and although a source for the quotes is
never given, who is to say that it may not turn up somewhere? But for
reasons explained in the two essays, I think it highly unlikely. Or if
it is authentic, I think it almost surely lifted completely out of
context.
From "Spurious Jefferson Quotes":
An inquiry was forwarded to me concerning the following quotation
attributed to Jefferson:
"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of
unequal people."
The inquirer stated that she had seen it for years used in
connection
with the education of gifted children, it had always been
attributed to
Jefferson, but she was never able to verify that it was written by
Jefferson. The earliest source seemed to be a judge in the 19th
century who ascribed it to "a wise man who once said..." But it
seems unlikely that the same man who inscribed those immortal
words,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal."
would have penned such a statement. Moreover, it is contradicted
by
so much that Jefferson DID write, that it appears highly doubtful
that
he would have entered into a discussion of the inequality of man
in
any way supportive thereof. In fact, many people have winced at
the
thought that Jefferson wrote that quote, and have been much
relieved
to discover that in all likelihood he did not. This reputed
quotation is
considered in greater detail under Educational Elitism.