Laudator Temporis Acti

Page Smith, John Adams, Vol. I: 1735-1784 (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962), p. 441 (on the Massachusetts constitution of 1780):

For the declaration of rights which preceded the constitution itself Adams leaned heavily on George Mason's classic statement in the Virginia bill of rights, written three years earlier. It is interesting to note that where, in the first article, Adams had written: "All men are born equally free and independent..." the convention deleted "equally" and replaced "independent" with "equal." Thus Adams' effort to do away with what was to him the disturbingly ambiguous phrase "born free and equal" came to nothing. It seemed so clear to him that men were most emphatically not born equal, either in wealth or talents, which made the phrase misleading and consequently dangerous. "Free and independent," yes; "free and equal," no.

Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), The Hour of Decision, Part One: Germany and World-Historical Evolution, tr. Charles Francis Atkinson (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1934), p. 92:

[S]ociety rests upon the inequality of men. That is a natural fact. There are strong and weak natures, natures born to lead or not to lead, creative and untalented, honourable, lazy, ambitious, and placid natures. Each has its place in the general order of things.