A philosopher is, no doubt, entitled to examine even those distinctions that are to be found in the structure of all languages... in that case, such a distinction may be imputed to a vulgar error, which ought to be corrected in philosophy.
Thomas Reid

Again, most of the chief distinctions marked by economic terms are differences not of kind but of degree.
Alfred Marshall

All men will commence in their present rank and promotion will be open to all men alike, without any distinctions or qualifications, political or otherwise.
John Amery

But when, in the first setting out, he takes it for granted without proof, that distinctions found in the structure of all languages, have no foundation in nature; this surely is too fastidious a way of treating the common sense of mankind.
Thomas Reid

Death and the dice level all distinctions.
Samuel Foote

Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.
Harlan Stone

Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.
Thomas Aquinas

Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.
Sydney Smith

Good men, whether they be Christians or rationalists, do not desire to discriminate between races, but the distinctions implanted by Nature are too conspicuous to escape the observation of our senses.
Arthur Keith

Hard distinctions make bad philosophy.
John McCarthy

I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology, and we should resist the temptation, which sometimes scientists give in to, to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science.
John Polkinghorne

I am quite unsatisfied by the distinctions between the oral and literate.
David Antin

I care not how worldly you may be: there are times when all distinctions seem like dust, and when at the graves of the great you dream of a coming country, where your proudest hopes shall be dimmed forever.
Donald G. Mitchell

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then beleive them to be true.
Buddha

Many persons have been confused and discouraged at the very outset of the study by the great variety and the delicate distinctions of the openings: and this has constituted a fault in many otherwise excellent manuals for the learner.
Howard Staunton

Of course, in the United States, which at the time was a very young country, there were also class distinctions. They weren't as pronounced, but they quickly evolved as well.
Iris Chang

Punishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.
Thomas Szasz

Racial distinctions should not play a role in sport.
Pierre de Coubertin

Social distinctions concern themselves ultimately with whom you may and may not marry.
Katharine Fullerton Gerould

Some people make sharp distinctions sort of between their recreational musings and their professional work. I don't make that distinction very much.
Whitfield Diffie