Quick! Who said it?

May 22, 2007 1:49 PM

QuoteFilter: Who coined the phrase, "death is the great equalizer"?
posted by jknecht to religion & philosophy (13 comments total)

I think that "the great equalizer" is a phrase that's just used in all sorts of contexts.
posted by hermitosis at 1:57 PM on May 22, 2007

So far, I can only find a reference as far back as 1997:

"Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another." -- Mitch Albom in Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)
posted by dnthomps at 2:07 PM on May 22, 2007

I do believe that the phrase "the great equalizer" originated as a description of Colt revolvers (maybe specifically the .45) in the late 19th-century American West.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:10 PM on May 22, 2007

definitely not mitch albom in that pos
posted by alkupe at 2:33 PM on May 22, 2007

Horace Mann said it of education. It's also been said of illness, and time.

Maybe Albom did coin the precise phrase you mention, but I sincerely doubt it. The notion that being "the great equalizer" equates to empathy is just all mixed up, anyway.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 2:59 PM on May 22, 2007

Earliest mention I can find is from Susanna Moodie's Life in the Clearings versus the Bush (1853): "death, the great equalizer, always restores to its possessors the rights of mind"
posted by Paragon at 3:47 PM on May 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

It is used a lot in discussion of Ecclesiastes

All share a common destiny-the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not... For the living know that they will die, (Eccl.9:2-3, 12-13).

posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 3:48 PM on May 22, 2007

Thomas Caryle, "On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History", 1841. Quote

Death is the great equalizer. In his pale presence they forgot their old squabbles and jealousies; they forgot their numberless ...

posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 4:40 PM on May 22, 2007

"God made men. Sam Colt made them equal."
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:50 PM on May 22, 2007

Whoops. That Caryle quote above seems to be bad.

It is linked on after doing a search for "equalizer" on the project Gutenberg page. However if you do a Google search of that site, it seems to come from "The Project Gutenberg Etext of South Wind, by Norman Douglas ..."
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 5:02 PM on May 22, 2007

MonkeySaltedNuts,

One cool thing, though, is that Car[l]yle DOES appear to have said that "Islam, like any great Faith, and insight into the essence of man, is a perfect equalizer of men." That must be what messed up the search.

Also, Kiekegaard said "Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer."

P.S. The real equalizer here is whoever saw fit to intervene and expunge the fart joke. Without that, this entire board, and the Internets, was surely doomed. We are eternally in your debt, oh vigilant one.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 5:13 PM on May 22, 2007

Will no one quote James Shirley's 1646 jewel, Death the Leveller?

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
Death lays his icy hand on Kings;
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

A brief life of Shirley.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:27 PM on May 22, 2007

Thanks everyone. I was looking for the earliest reference to the exact phrase "great equalizer" in reference to Death.

Paragon seems to have found it. MonkeySaltedNuts gets the second place prize.

The rest of your answers are, nonetheless, informative and as always, appreciated.
posted by jknecht at 11:06 AM on May 23, 2007