Aristocracy Quotes - Page 3

• Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity

  Thomas Jefferson

  Dream, School, Opportunity

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• Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.

  W. H. Auden

  Responsibility, Poetic, Shoulders

  "The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays" by W. H. Auden, ("American Poetry"), (p. 367), 1962.

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• The blunting effects of slavery upon the slaveholder's moral perceptions are known and conceded the world over; and a priveleged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slaveholders under another name.

  Mark Twain

  Class, Names, Perception

  Mark Twain, Bernard L. Stein (1983). “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court”, p.239, Univ of California Press

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• Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in proportion as they are puffed up with personal pride and arrogance, generally despise their own order.

  Edmund Burke

  Pride, Men, Order

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke”, p.188

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• It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful.

  W. H. Auden

  Past, Cheerful, Majority

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• No sovereign, no court, no personal loyalty, no aristocracy, no church, no clergy, no army, no diplomatic service, no country gentlemen, no palaces, no castles, nor manors, nor old country-houses, nor parsonages, nor thatched cottages nor ivied ruins no cathedrals, nor abbeys, nor little Norman churches no great Universities nor public schools -- no Oxford, nor Eton, nor Harrow no literature, no novels, no museums, no pictures, no political society, no sporting class -- no Epsom nor Ascot Some such list as that might be drawn up of the absent things in American life.

  Henry James

  Loyalty, Country, School

  'Hawthorne' (1879)

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• There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Wise, Essentials

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.189, Simon and Schuster

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• The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Freedom, Political, Greek

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2012). “The Philosophy of History”, p.104, Courier Corporation

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• We are fast moving toward an aristocracy of health.

  Alice Tisdale Hobart

  Moving, Health, Care

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• All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Sleep, Noble, Quiet

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.230, Ravenio Books

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• You must drop all your democracy. You must not believe in ''the people.'' One class is no better than another. It must be a case of Wisdom, or Truth. Let the working classes be working classes. That is the truth. There must be an aristocracy of people who have wisdom, and there must be a Ruler: a Kaiser: no Presidents and democracies.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Believe, Class, People

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• I hate the noise and hurry inseparable from great Estates and Titles, and look upon both as blessings that ought only to be given to fools, for 'Tis only to them that they are blessings.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Hate, Blessing, Titles

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu”, p.164

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• Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Past, Vices, Energy

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Three, Chapter XI, 1840.

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• Common sense, in so far as it exists, is all for the bourgeoisie. Nonsense is the privilege of the aristocracy. The worries of the world are for the common people.

  George Jean Nathan

  People, Common Sense, Worry

  George Jean Nathan (1960). “The magic mirror: selected writings on the theatre”

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• An aristocracy is the true support of a monarchy.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Support, Monarchy

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• The best work in the world was always done by members of the aristocracy.

  George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston

  Done, World, Members

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• One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

  Michael Korda

  Inspirational, Motivational, Goal

  "Success!". Book by Michael Korda (p.36), 1977.

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• Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.

  Edmund Burke

  Order, Society, Ornaments

  'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790) p. 205

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• The breath of an aristocrat is the death rattle of freedom.

  Georg Buchner

  Breaths

  "Danton's Death". Play by Georg Buchner, Act I, 1835.

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• An organized effort is making to deceive the people. There are two great enemies of thought and progress, the aristocracy of royalty and the aristocracy of gold.

  Mary Elizabeth Lease

  Two, Hype, People

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• Aristocracy and exclusiveness tend to final overthrow, in language as in politics.

  William Dwight Whitney

  Finals, Language

  William Dwight Whitney (1867). “Language and the Study of Language Twelve Lectures on the Principles of Linguistic Science William Dwight Whitney”, p.150

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• Our aristocracy, unlike that of Europe, is open to all comers.

  Josiah Strong

  Europe, Scientism

  Josiah Strong (1891). “Our Country, Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis”

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• No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

  Adam Smith

  Happiness, Equality, Society

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.33

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• The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization.

  Lytton Strachey

  War, Taken, Passion

  Lytton Strachey (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Lytton Strachey (Illustrated)”, p.48, Delphi Classics

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• Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race - the individual's distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety's or comfort's sake, to stand well in his neighbor's eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.

  Mark Twain

  Country, Eye, Heart

  Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.1338, GENERAL PRESS

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