Best class & upper-class Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I'm a big John Steinbeck fan. Cormac McCarthy. I've always loved the stories of regular people. Mark Twain, too. When you look back at some of the epic writers of our country's history, very rarely do you find upper-class royalty. We seem to delve into the struggle of life and the labor of life much more frequently.”

People Looks Country Stories Bigs Seems Class Struggle Fans Labor Mark Our Country Epic Royalty Life Struggle Upper Class

Author:Lucas Neff

“We don't know how Cleopatra spent her days, but we do know how other Hellenistic monarchs spent their days. There has been a great amount of scholarship in the last 30 years about education in the Hellenistic world and women in the Hellenistic world. We now know how an upper-class woman was educated in her day.”

Knows World Years Has Beens Lasts Class Know How Amount Educated Scholarship Monarchs Upper Class

Author:Stacy Schiff

“George Bush is by American standards rabidly Upper Class - Eastern, Socially Attractive, WASP, 19th-century money, several generations of Andover and Yale (and, while we're at it, his father, George H. W. 'Poppy' Bush, was a former president and his grandfather was the Nazis' U.S. banker in the 1930s).”

Father President Class Generations Century Standards Former Attractive Grandfather Nazi Eastern Bankers 19th Century 1930s Yale Upper Class Poppies Wasps

Author:Peter York

“I am of the international upper class, the Swedish petit bourgeoisie of Jewish extraction with poor language skills, a conveyor of a few expressions and faces, with some intonation that combines ancient human experience with timely coquetry.”

Humans Faces Language Poor Class Expression Skills International Ancient Human Experience Bourgeoisie Timely Upper Class Swedish Coquetry Extraction Intonation Language Skills

Author:Erland Josephson

“The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.”

Source: All Labor Has Dignity

“We are in the more blessed category, the upper class who lived by faith and believed even though we hadn't seen!”

Class Blessed Heavenly Categories Upper Class

Author:David Berg

“Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, brutalizes our lower class.”

Wealth Class Middle Inequality Middle Class Consumerism Overconsumption Upper Class Lower Class Upper Middle Class

Book:Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

“Inequality has the natural and necessary effect, under the present circumstances, of materializing our upper class, vulgarizing our middle class, and brutalizing our lower class.”

Culture Natural Justice Class Middle Effects Circumstances Diversity Social Justice Inequality Middle Class Upper Class Lower Class

Book:Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

“Morality for the upper classes, the gallows for the rabbles.”

Class Morality Upper Class Gallows

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“One has often wondered whether upon the whole earth there is anything so unintelligent, so unapt to perceive how the world is really going, as an ordinary young Englishman of our upper class.”

World Whole Earth Young Class Ordinary Perceive Englishmen Upper Class Unintelligent Old Money

Book:Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings

Source: Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings

“Marx's Kapital is not a treatise on socialism; it is a gerrymand against the bourgeoisie. It was supposed to be written for the working class, but the working man respects the bourgeoisie and wants to be a bourgeoisie. Marx never got a hold of him for a moment. It was the revolting sons of the bourgeoisie itself, like myself, that painted the flag red. The middle and upper classes are the revolutionary element in society. The proletariat is the conservative element.”

“I was almost impeached for getting cars off sidewalks which car owning upper classes had illegally appropriated for parking.”

Class Car Parking Sidewalk Upper Class

Author:Enrique Penalosa

“Tomorrow everybody - or practically everybody - will have had the education of the upper class of yesterday, and will expect equivalent opportunities. That is why we face the problem of making every kind of job meaningful and capable of satisfying every educated man.”

Men Kind Problem Jobs Faces Opportunity Class Tomorrow Capable Meaningful Yesterday Educated Satisfying Upper Class Educated Man

Author:Peter Drucker

“Look, there is a sort of old view about class which is a very simplistic view that we have got the working class, the middle class and the upper class, I think it is more complicated than that.”

Thinking Looks Views Class Middle Complicated Middle Class Working Class Upper Class Upper Middle Class

Author:Ed Miliband

“Conservatism, being an upper-class characteristic, is decorous; and conversely, innovation, being a lower-class phenomenon, is vulgar. ...Innovation is bad form.”

Form Class Innovation Characteristics Phenomenon Vulgar Conservatism Upper Class Lower Class

Book:The Theory of the Leisure Class

Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class

“When the Democrats are attacked for [inciting class warfare] they shrink back. They don't say what obviously should be said, "Yes, there is class warfare. There has always been class warfare in this country." The reason the Democrats shrink back is because the Democrats and the Republicans are on the same side of the class war. They have slightly different takes. The Democrats are part of the upper class that is more willing to make concessions to the lower class in order to maintain their power.”

Should Said Different War Country Reason Order Sides Class Willing Republican Democrat Warfare Shrinks Concessions Upper Class Class Warfare Lower Class

Author:Howard Zinn

“While some multimillionaires started in poverty, most did not. A study of the origins of 303 textile, railroad and steel executives of the 1870s showed that 90 percent came from middle- or upper-class families. The Horatio Alger stories of "rags to riches" were true for a few men, but mostly a myth, and a useful myth for control.”

Men Stories Wealth Class Poverty Study Middle Percent Myth Riches Executives Steel Rags Railroads Upper Class Horatio Textiles Rags To Riches

Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

Source: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

“It would be hard to find a single example in history in which a group that cast more than 50 percent of the vote got away with calling itself the victim... Women are the only 'oppressed' group to share the same parents as the 'oppressor'; to be born into the middle class and upper class as frequently as the 'oppressor'; to own more of the culture's luxury items than the 'oppressor'.”

Source: The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex

“In one of my latest conversations with Darwin he expressed himself very gloomily on the future of humanity, on the ground that in our modern civilization natural selection had no play, and the fittest did not survive. Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent, and it is notorious that our population is more largely renewed in each generation from the lower than from the middle and upper classes.”

Source: Alfred Russel Wallace: An Anthology of His Shorter Writings

“The education that you give to the upper classes will not uproot idolatry and prejudice, for it is amongst the masses that the error and prejudice will always maintain their power, and while you do not uproot those prejudices from the hearts of the masses, a handful of educated Hindus will never be able successfully to reform the country.”

Giving Heart Country Able Class Mass Prejudice Errors Educated Reform Handful Idolatry Upper Class

Author:Keshub Chandra Sen

“In every conversation I've had - with housewives in Mumbai, with middle-class people, upper-class, in the slums - everyone says there is an underlying consciousness of karma. That people believe in karma - that what you're putting out is going to come back. If I do something to you, the energy of it is going to come back to me in the future.”

People Ifs Believe Energy Consciousness Class Middle Conversation Karma Middle Class Housewife Slums Upper Class Mumbai Come Back To Me

Author:Deepak Chopra

“Whatever people may say, the fastidious formal manner of the upper classes is preferable to the slovenly easygoing behaviour of the common middle class. In moments of crisis, the former know how to act, the latter become uncouth brutes.”

People Knows May Moments Common Class Know How Middle Crisis Former Latter Middle Class Behaviour Formal Brutes Upper Class Fastidious Uncouth

Author:Cesare Pavese

“The aristocrat, when he wants to, has very good manners. The Scottish upper classes, in particular, have that shell-shocked look that probably comes from banging their heads on low beams leaping to their feet whenever a woman comes into the room. Aristocrats are also deeply male chauvinist, and ... on the whole they tend to be reactionary.”

Want Looks Whole Rooms Class Feet Particular Lows Males Very Good Manners Good Man Shells Shocked Beam Scottish Reactionaries Good Manners Banging Upper Class Male Chauvinist

Author:Jilly Cooper

“Evolution is what it is. The upper classes have always died out; it's one of the most charming things about them.”

Class Evolution Died Charming Upper Class

Author:Germaine Greer

“Attempts to limit female mobility by hampering locomotion are ancient and almost universal. The foot-binding of upper-class Chinese girls and the Nigerian custom of loading women's legs with pounds of heavy brass wire are extreme examples, but all over the world similar stratagems have been employed to make sure that once you have caught a woman she cannot run away, and even if she stays around she cannot keep up with you. ... Literally as well as figuratively modern women's shoes are what keeps Samantha from running as fast as Sammy.”

“Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you're Royalty.”

Mean Born Wealth Class Royalty Upper Class

Author:Benedict Cumberbatch

“In a true democracy everyone can be upper class and live in Connecticut.”

Class Democracy Upper Class Connecticut True Democracy

Book:The official preppy handbook

Source: The official preppy handbook

“I had to admit that in his old-fashioned way O'Hara was still romantic about sex; like Scott Fitzgerald, he thought of it as an upper-class prerogative.”

Way Art Stills Sex Class Entertainment Old Fashioned Prerogative Upper Class Scott Fitzgerald

Book:Contemporaries, from the 19th century to the present

Source: Contemporaries, from the 19th century to the present

“Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighbourhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western culture.”

Culture Class Western Conservative Consuming Western Culture Upper Class Istanbul Neighbourhoods

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“What's the greatest enemy of Christianity to-day? Frozen meat. In the past only members of the upper classes were thoroughly sceptical, despairing, negative. Why? Among other reasons, because they were the only people who could afford to eat too much meat. Now there's cheap Canterbury lamb and Argentine chilled beef. Even the poor can afford to poison themselves into complete scepticism and despair.”

People Reason Past Poor Christianity Enemy Class Too Much Members Despair Negative Meat Poison Skepticism Frozen Lambs Beef Upper Class Scepticism Chilled Canterbury

Book:The collected works of Aldous Huxley

Source: The collected works of Aldous Huxley

“Fitzgerald describes the social disillusionments and ballroom romanticism of the young people of the upper classes and the loneliness of Gatsby, who gives large parties and has an extensive social life; yet he is lonely, and his guests scarcely know him.... Hemingway's characters live in a tourist world, and one of their major problems is that of consuming time itself. It is interesting to observe that his works are written from the stand point of the spectator. His characters are usually people who are looking--looking at bullfights, scenery, and at one another across cafe tables.”

“A sort of moral blackmail is exerted from both poles. The underclass, one gathers, should be dulled with charity and welfare provision lest it turn nasty. The upper class must likewise be conciliated by vast handouts, lest it lose the "incentive" to go on generating wealth.”

Should Turns Loses Wealth Moral Class Goes On Charity Welfare Nasty Incentives Provision Upper Class Blackmail Handouts

Book:Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports

Source: Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports

“If I were to search for logic, I would not look for it among the English upper class.”

Ifs Looks Class Logic Upper Class

Author:Lady Violet

“All middle-class novels are about the trials of three, all upper-class novels about mass fornication, all revolutionary novels about a bad man turned good by a tractor.”

Men Three Class Novel Middle Mass Trials Revolutionary Middle Class Bad Man Upper Class Tractors

Book:The beauties and furies

Source: The beauties and furies

“The presentation of mathematics in schools should be psychological and not systematic. The teacher, so to speak, should be a diplomat. He must take account of the psychic processes in the boy in order to grip his interest, and he will succeed only if he presents things in a form intuitively comprehensible. A more abstract presentation is only possible in the upper classes.”

Ifs Should School Form Order Speak Process Interest Class Boys Teacher Succeed Accounts Mathematics Psychological Abstract Psychics Presentation Systematic Diplomats Upper Class

Author:Felix Klein

“There is no denying that there are 'royal roads' through existence for the upper classes; for them, at least, the highways are macadamized, swept, and watered.”

Wealth Existence Class Royal Highways Upper Class

Book:The Works of L.E. Landon in Two Volumes

Source: The Works of L.E. Landon in Two Volumes

“Nothing more strongly marks the insufficiency of luxuries than the ease with which people grow accustomed to them; they are rather known by their want than by their presence. The word 'blasé' has been coined expressly for the use of the upper classes.”

People Want Has Beens Use Grows Known Class Mark Luxury Ease Accustomed Upper Class Insufficiency

Book:The Works of L. E. Landon: In Two Volumes

Source: The Works of L. E. Landon: In Two Volumes

“We deny your internationalism, because it is a luxury which only the upper classes can afford.”

Class Deny Luxury Upper Class Internationalism

Author:Benito Mussolini

“Certain kinds of things that the novel used to do, which was, "Oh, I'm living out here in West Nowhere, Nebraska and I'm curious how the upper class in New York City lives, I guess I'll read a novel about it." We don't have to do that now. You just turn on the TV. Turn on Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous. You can get that information anywhere. Novels don't have to do that anymore.”

Kind Used Certain Turns Cities Class Novel Rich Information New York Tvs West Lifestyle Curious New York City Turn-on City Life Upper Class Nebraska

Author:Jonathan Franzen

“I think the working-class part of me comes out. Sometimes the people who have the loudest mouths are upper-class, upper-middle-class. The quietest are often working-class people, people who are broke. There is a fear of losing whatever it is that you have. I come from that background.”

People Thinking Sometimes Class Middle Losing Mouths Backgrounds Broke Middle Class Working Class Upper Class Upper Middle Class

Author:Billie Joe Armstrong

“The Stately Homes of England, How beautiful they stand, To prove the Upper Classes, Have still the Upper Hand.”

Stills Home Humor Hands Funny Beautiful Class Prove England Upper Class Upper Hand

Author:Noel Coward

“Politics in Bolivia must combine social consciousness with professional competency. In my administration, intellectuals from the upper class can be cabinet ministers or ambassadors, as can members of Indian ethnic groups.”

Social Consciousness Class Groups Members Administration Indian Ministers Cabinets Ambassadors Upper Class Ethnic Groups Competencies Bolivia Social Consciousness

Author:Evo Morales

“My Dad taught me that the English upper class are sent to school to be taught to be confident, whereas in Glasgow you're born confident. I've always thought that pretty much summed me up. Born confident.”

School Born Class Taught Dad My Dad Be Confident Upper Class Glasgow

Author:Rankin

“A broad definition of crime in England is that it is any lower-class activity that is displeasing to the upper class.”

Class Crime Activity England Definitions Broads Insulting Upper Class Lower Class

Author:David Frost

“The piano is just a different animal. It's expensive, it's big, it's heavy, and it doesn't fit in the mix easily. Everyone grew up with a piano in their living room, so rocking out on the piano was accessible - it wasn't an upper-class thing. Now pianos have become very much a piece of furniture.”

Different Bigs Animal Rooms Class Pieces Grew Fit Grew Up Heavy Piano Expensive Furniture Living Room Upper Class Different Animals Rocking Out

Author:Ben Folds

“My basic position is that the more mixed the society and the more mobility there is in it, the better. That's what makes things interesting. When you get a homogenous society, it's very, very dull, whether that's all working class or all upper class, because everybody thinks the same, everybody looks the same.”

Thinking Looks Interesting Class Position Dull Working Class Mobility Upper Class

Author:Jarvis Cocker

“I was a young man, and this is the kind of London it was, but so many people are just not here anymore. Not even Tina [Chow], who was to me absolutely the most important girl of the time. Tina was absolutely the chicest thing, the way she kept herself, the way she moved. You're born like that - you cannot acquire it. All those upper-class girls, people like Catherine Tennant, they used to be there in Chelsea, sitting on the couch. Now Chelsea is full of Russians.”

People Men Way Kind Important Young Used Girl Born Class Sitting Moved London Used To Be Young Man Acquire Couches Chelsea Upper Class

Author:Manolo Blahnik

“...many of the officials, courtiers, and priests, representing the upper class of Egyptian society but not the royalty, looked strikingly like modern Europeans, especially long-headed ones”

Long Class Modern Officials Priests Royalty Representing Egyptian Upper Class Courtiers

Author:Carleton S. Coon

“The trouble with the lower classes is that they lack the sense of tragedy given to them by the upper classes.”

Given Class Trouble Tragedy Upper Class Lower Class

Author:Oscar Wilde

“To prepare youth for success in entrepreneurial (and free) cultures, education tends to emphasize originality, creativity, breadth, depth and leadership skills rather than rote memorization, standardized curricula or socialization. The latter skill set is vital in societies with strong upper classes employing the lower castes, but the former is essential to free democratic nations.”

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Class Quotes