"In wealth, we have come far, when few have too much and fewer too little."

I came across this by N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) again recently. Now, that's what I call a level playing field. 

It's from an 1820 Grundtvig poem Langt høiere Bjerge,  or in English, Far Higher Are Mountains In Other Lands Found (translated here).

Grundtvig was a contemporary of Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard and is credited with being part of the inspiration behind the Danish welfare state. I seem to remember that Keirkegaard was rather derisive of him.

It occurs in both The Politics of Affirmative Action: 'Women', Equality and Category Politics by Carol Lee Bacchi (1996) and in Marie Tourell Soderberg's (2016) Hygge: The Danish Art of Happiness.  

Guess where I first came across this?