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About this quote

What does it mean?
Treating everyone the same can be unfair when people have different needs.
In plain terms
Equal treatment isn't always fair.
What can you take from it?
Adjust treatment based on individual circumstances.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • management

Putting it to work

  • apply contextual fairness

Questions to consider

  • When is equality unfair?

Another view

It complicates simple rules.

More from Felix Frankfurter

  1. Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

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  2. The words of the Constitution ... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the …

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  3. If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an essential part of the …

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