Elitist Quotes

• There are people in government who don't want other people to know what they know. It's just another example of elitism. And I spit on elitism. Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser.

  Tom Clancy

  Memorable, Loser, Show Me

  "Vonnegut and Clancy on Technology". Interview with Sarah Schafer, www.inc.com. December 15, 1995.

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• The American citizen must be made aware that today a relatively small group of people is proclaiming its purposes to be the will of the People. That elitist approach to government must be repudiated.

  William E. Simon

  Government, People, Groups

  William E. Simon (1979). “Time for Truth”, Berkley

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• Lists are anti-democratic, discriminatory, elitist, and sometimes the print is too small.

  David Ives

  Lists, Sometimes, Democratic

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• I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn't mean I haven't wanted it to be excellent.

  Twyla Tharp

  Mean, Dancing, Intimidating

  "The High Priestess of Creative Movement". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 25, 1993.

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• I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.

  Elia Kazan

  Bohemian Rhapsody, Collectives, Persons

  Elia Kazan (2011). “Elia Kazan: A Life”, p.205, Knopf

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• I think one of the problems the Democrats have today is that they are an elitist party.

  Ed Gillespie

  Party, Thinking, Today

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• One of the problems that we face through the media attention that these artists receive is that there has been an awful lot of talk about opera and classical music being elite and being for an elitist group.

  Lesley Garrett

  Artist, Media, Groups

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• I hate elitists. I hate conceited people. I hate pompous people.

  Neil Cavuto

  Hate, Conceited, People

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• Fox News is hated because they're elitists, and the worst winners television's ever seen.

  Keith Olbermann

  News, Television, Foxes

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• Most poets are elitist dregs more concerned with proving their skill with a dictionary than communicating ideas with impact.

  Henry Rollins

  Impact, Skills, Ideas

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• I think we could all be a bit more elitist.

  Rufus Wainwright

  Thinking, Bits

  "Portrait of the artist: Rufus Wainwright, musician". Interview with Laura Barnett, www.theguardian.com. April 12, 2010.

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• There's something retro about your persona. It's like the pre-World War II generation of reporters - those unpretentious, working-class guys who hung around saloons and used rough language. Now they've all been replaced with these effete Ivy League elitists who swarm over the current media. Nerds - utterly dull and insipid.

  Camille Paglia

  War, Class, Ivy

  "DRUDGE MATCH: Camille Paglia Gets Intimate With The Shady Wizard Of The Web". Interview with Matt Drudge, freerepublic.com. November 6, 2003.

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• To me, elitism means a love of excellence and superiority, but America has declared war on both and developed a sick love of the lowest common denominator to make sure no-one becomes too fine for our touted democracy. We are almost at the point of regarding every virtue as elitist.

  Florence King

  War, Mean, America

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• 

  The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Trust, Witty

  Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1079, RosettaBooks

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• It is, of course, the first recourse of every elitist to see social barbarism in others.

  Graham Joyce

  Firsts, Social, Barbarism

  "Don't confuse 'readability' with dumbing down" by Graham Joyce, www.theguardian.com. October 21, 2011.

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• I've worked with some great orchestras and amazing classical musicians, but I don't like the conceptualization of classical music as an elitist form of art.

  Serj Tankian

  Art, Musician, Orchestra

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• I suspect it's because Truman Democrats have been replaced by Gruber Democrats - self-styled elitists who feed lavishly at the public trough and think government should serve them, not the hoi polloi they disdain and deceive.

  Jack Kelly

  Thinking, Government, Self

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• Because I was a woman, I was vulnerable. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman.'

  Wangari Maathai

  Vulnerable, Tradition, Easy

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Maybe I'm an elitist, but I don't feel like I am.

  Kim Deal

  Feels

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• Black America Has Allowed Itself to Be Used by Race-Baiters and White Liberal Elitists

  Amy Ridenour

  Race, White, America

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• With the Democrats, they see themselves, we see ourselves as the party of the working folks, the striving, you know, the good. But, without anybody acknowledging it, there is now this little camp of folks who come across as very elitist, that look down on red state voters, who think that Republicans are dumb people.

  Van Jones

  Party, Thinking, People

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• Our Founding Fathers were proud that Americans were trusted with arms because they knew that only when people are armed could they truly be thought of as free citizens. And that's where the circle closes. Those who want to deprive you of your right to keep and bear arms are intending to deprive you of your freedom, period. Like the criminals their policies encourage, these elitists know that it is always best to disarm victims before you enslave them.

  Charley Reese

  Father, Circles, People

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• Some of the environmental lobbyists of the western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they would be crying out for tractors, and fertilizer, and irrigation canals, and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.

  Norman Borlaug

  Home, Years, Office

  Interview with Gregg Easterbrook, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1997.

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• It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.

  Wangari Maathai

  Men, People, Feelings

  "I Will Disappear Into the Forest". Interview with Dave Gilson, www.motherjones.com. January 5, 2005.

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• I happily cling to my guns and my God, even if President Obama thinks that that is a simpleminded thing in his elitist heart.

  Rick Perry

  Heart, Gun, Thinking

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