Children are born to equality but not in it, gaining freedom only with reason.

Evidence

Children, I confess, are not born in this full state of equality, though they are born to it. Their parents have a sort of rule and jurisdiction over them, when they come into the world, and for some time after; but it is but a temporary one. The bonds of this subjection are like the swaddling clothes they are wrapt up in, and supported by, in the weakness of their infancy: age and reason as they grow up, loosen them, till at length they drop quite off, and leave a man at his own free disposal. — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 66

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the natural rights and consent foundations framing the Declaration’s claims about equality and government by consent; also prefigures the capacity-based standard later picked up in legal guardianship doctrine. — connects to: Persons lacking reason can never be free and remain under others’ governance for life. — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 71; Natural freedom and childhood subjection rest on the same principle of attained reason. — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 74; Individual freedom is achieved only through the freedom of others — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 144 (+5 more)

Related

• Natural freedom and childhood subjection rest on the same principle of attained reason. (similarity 0.88)
• Persons lacking reason can never be free and remain under others’ governance for life. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Birth-place restricts freedom, whether this enslaves or enables #corroborates (0.80)
• Freedom’s responsibility falls on the self alone despite one’s un-chosen birth. #expands (0.80)
• Individual freedom is achieved only through the freedom of others #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 144
• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 535
• Freedom and equality form a fundamental, unresolved antinomy #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2567
• Freedom and equality are mutually contradictory demands, not harmonious ideals #qualifies (0.72) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2573