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Aristocracy Quotes

Browse 286 quotes about Aristocracy.

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Aristocracy Quotes

“The culture of the United States has flooded the world. It's the inevitable result of a powerful culture, art. We've got an instinctive touch when it comes to the popular mind because we've had no aristocracy. It is a democratic country. And we know without knowing it, without bothering to understand it, how to reach ordinary people, sometimes with the most vulgar, worthless junk on the face of the earth, but we know how to do it [laughter].”

PeopleKnowsWorldMindArtCountrySometimesStatesEarthFacesCultureUnitedResultsPowerfulUnited StatesKnow HowKnowingLaughterOrdinaryDemocraticInevitableBotherWorthlessVulgarOrdinary PeopleJunkAristocracyDemocratic Country
Author:Arthur Miller
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“Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.”

IfsWayWellsLittlesLongGovernmentFormThreeNamesVirtueDemocracyWorstKingsMereTyrannySuperiorityRoyalLong WayAristocracyTolerableOligarchyGreat Person
Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“There are still two forms besides democracy and oligarchy; one of them is universally recognized and included among the four principal forms of government, which are said to be (1) monarchy, (2) oligarchy, (3) democracy, and (4) the so-called aristocracy or government of the best. But there is also a fifth, which retains the generic name of polity or constitutional government.”

SaidStillsTwoGovernmentFormNamesDemocracyFourPrincipalFifthMonarchyAristocracyForms Of GovernmentOligarchyGenericConstitutional GovernmentGeneric Name
Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic.”

WellsHandsInterestWealthVirtueConditionsTalentDangerEqualEssentialsBenefitsHarmOpeningRepublicAristocracy
Book:Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson
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“There is a vulgar persuasion, that the ignorance of women, by favoring their subordination, ensures their utility. 'Tis the same argument employed by the ruling few against the subject many in aristocracies; by the rich against the poor in democracies; by the learned professions against the people in all countries.”

PeopleCountryPoorDemocracyRichSubjectsIgnoranceArgumentProfessionPersuasionEmployedVulgarRulingUtilityAristocracyElitismSubordination
Book:Course of popular lectures as delivered by Frances Wright: with three addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789. Second edition
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“To make Democracy work, you need an aristocratic democracy. To make Aristocracy work, you need a democratic aristocracy.”

NeedsDemocracyDemocraticAristocracyAristocratic
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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“We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy,or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.”

WayAmericaChanceWorshipDaughterRegardAncientPrivilegeEnvyTitlesManifestContemptCashDespisedAristocracyNot HappyHereditary
Book:Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review
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“A jackass has that kind of strength, and puts it to a useful purpose, and is valuable to the world because he is a jackass; but anobleman is not valuable because he is a jackass. It is a mixture that is always ineffectual, and should never have been attempted in the first place. And yet, once you start a mistake, the trouble is done and you never know what is going to come of it.”

KnowsWorldShouldFirstsKindHas BeensDonePurposeMistakeTroubleStrengthValuableMixturesAristocracyJackasses
Book:MARK TWAIN Ultimate Collection: 370+ Titles in One Volume (Illustrated): The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, The £1,000,000 Bank Note, A Horse’s Tale, Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Innocents Abroad, Life on the Mississippi…
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“I would be the last to deny that the greatest scientific pioneers belonged to an aristocracy of the spirit and were exceptionally intelligent, something that we as modest investigators will never attain, no matter how much we exert ourselves. Nevertheless ... I continue to believe that there is always room for anyone with average intelligence ... to utilize his energy and ... any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain, and that even the least gifted may, like the poorest land that has been well-cultivated and fertilized, produce an abundant harvest.”

IfsMenBelieveWellsMayHas BeensMatterWould BeLastsSpiritBeliefEnergyRoomsBrainLandProduceIntelligentAverageIntelligenceDenyNeverthelessGiftedModestHarvestExceptionalAttainmentPioneersPoorestAristocracySculptorsExertionInvestigators
Author:Santiago Ramon y Cajal
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“It may be a mere patriotic bias, though I do not think so, but it seems to me that the English aristocracy is not only the type, but is the crown and flower of all actual aristocracies; it has all the oligarchical virtues as well as all the defects. It is casual, it is kind, it is courageous in obvious matters; but it has one great merit that overlaps even these. The great and very obvious merit of the English aristocracy is that nobody could possibly take it seriously.”

ThinkingWellsKindMayMatterSeemsVirtueFlowerTypeMereObviousMeritCourageousPatrioticCrownsBiasDefectsCasualAristocracy
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“Capitalism improves the quality of life for the working class not just because it leads to improved wages but also because it produces new, better, and cheaper goods.... Indeed, with capitalism, the emphasis shifted to producing goods as cheaply as possible for the masses--the working class--whereas artisans had previously produced their goods and wares mostly for the aristocracy. Under capitalism every business wants to cater to the masses, for that is where the money is.”

WantQualityClassProduceMassCapitalismGoodsWorking ClassWagesEmphasisQuality Of LifeCheaperAristocracyArtisans
Author:Thomas DiLorenzo
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“I distrust Great Men... I believe in aristocracy, though... Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet... They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke.”

MenBelieveWellsAgeFoundI BelieveNationsUnderstandingSecretClassMembersJokesEndureI Believe InSensitiveGreat MenDistrustAristocracyPluckConsiderateFussy
Author:E. M. Forster
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“If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.”

IfsShouldMightIndividualBloodCenturyBirthBehaviorEuropeCirclesExcellentGentlemanReviewsLeisureEleganceCourtesyBreedingAristocracyGuardedOffenceAssemblage
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“To the feudal aristocracy and the aristocracy of the spirit, nobility derives from diametrically opposite sources. The glory of the feudal aristocrat is in being a link in the longest possible chain of ancestors. The glory of the aristocrat of the spirit is in having no ancestors - or having as few as possible. If an artist is his own ancestor, if he has only descendents, he enters history as a genius; if he has few ancestors, or is related to them distantly, he enters history as a talent.”

IfsInspirationalArtSpiritArtistLiteratureTalentSourceGeniusGloryOppositesChainsRelatedLinksAncestorNobilityAristocracy
Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin
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“Thus, experience has ever shown, that education, as well as religion, aristocracy, as well as democracy and monarchy, are, singly, totally inadequate to the business of restraining the passions of men, of preserving a steady government, and protecting the lives, liberties, and properties of the people . . . . Religion, superstition, oaths, education, laws, all give way before passions, interest, and power, which can be resisted only by passions, interest, and power.”

PeopleMenWayGivingWellsGovernmentLawPassionInterestLibertyDemocracyHuman NaturePropertySteadySuperstitionsMonarchyOathInadequateAristocracyRestraining
Author:John Adams
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“Shall we have recourse to the art of printing? But this has not destroyed property or aristocracy or corporations or paper wealth in England or America, or diminished the influence of either; on the contrary, it has multiplied aristocracy and diminished democracy.”

ArtAmericaWealthDemocracyInfluencePaperEnglandPropertyContraryDestroyedCorporationsPrintingAristocracyRecourse
Book:The Political Writings of John Adams
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“Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course. ... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.”

IfsWholeCoursesInterestPrinciplesIssuesGrowingHonestPaperDelusionViolationAristocracyRobbersDeposits
Book:Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]
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“As to the Income Tax, my opinion is that the needful revenue would be fairly and most fairly raised if paid by property, and by individuals in proportion to their property. A Property Tax should be an assessment upon all land and buildings, and canals and railroads, but not on property such as machinery, stock in trade, etc. The aristocracy have squeezed all they can out of the mass of the consumers, and now they lay their daring hands on those not wholly impoverished.”

IfsShouldHandsWould BeIndividualOpinionLandBuildingTaxesMassPaidTradeLaysPropertyRaisedIncomeConsumersProportionEtcDaringRevenueMachineryAristocracyIncome TaxAssessmentRailroadsCanalsProperty Taxes
Author:John Bright
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.”

MenLongFactsGovernmentLastsRememberFormPassionSimpleDemocracyViolenceEffectsProduceProudWasteMurderSuicideSelfishCommitCrueltyVainFraudAmbitiousMonarchySuitableAristocracyDemocracies HaveViolence And Cruelty
Author:John Adams
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