all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

Definition 
In a society or organization where all are supposedly equal, it is often the case that some have special privileges, or greater power than others: "Thus, even on the night of such personal triumph, Jason Gilbert was once again reminded that although all Harvard undergraduates are equal, some are more equal than others" (Erich Segal, The Class, 1985). Other words may be substituted for animals, as in the above quotation. The proverb comes from George Orwell's novel Animal Farm (1945), where it is the ultimate slogan of a supposedly egalitarian regime set up by the animals of a farm, which gradually becomes as tyrannical as the human one it replaced.