Comments on: Quick! Who said it?

Question: Quick! Who said it?

jknecht — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:49:16 -0800

QuoteFilter: Who coined the phrase, "death is the great equalizer"?

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:57:20 -0800

I think that "the great equalizer" is a phrase that's just used in all sorts of contexts.

By: dnthomps

dnthomps — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:07:17 -0800

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)

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:10:46 -0800

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.

By: alkupe

alkupe — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:33:54 -0800

definitely not mitch albom in that pos

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:59:47 -0800

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.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:47:30 -0800

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"

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:48:58 -0800

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).

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:40:46 -0800

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 ...

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:50:20 -0800

"God made men. Sam Colt made them equal."

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:02:42 -0800

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 ..."

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:13:02 -0800

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.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Tue, 22 May 2007 21:27:34 -0800

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.

By: jknecht

jknecht — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:06:27 -0800

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.