Aristocracy Quotes

• There is only one true aristocracy . . . and that is the aristocracy of passionate souls!

  Tennessee Williams

  Soul, Passionate

  Tennessee Williams (1994). “Collected Stories”, p.83, New Directions Publishing

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Government, Political

  New York Times 1 Feb. 1931, pt. 5, p. 1

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• There exists a false aristocracy based on family name, property, and inherited wealth. But there likewise exists a true aristocracy based on intelligence, talent and virtue.

  Tom Robbins

  Names, Talent, Wealth

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates”, p.61, Bantam

  2 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Dream, School, Opportunity

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Aristocracy is always cruel.

  Wendell Phillips

  Wendell Phillips, Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison, C C Burleigh (2007). “No Slave-Hunting in the Old Bay State: An Appeal to the People and Legislature of Massachusetts -- Including, Toussaint L'Ouverture”, p.37, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Short Life, Men, Hair

  Letter to John Adams, 28 Oct. 1813

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no greater evidence of superior intelligence than to be surprised at nothing.

  Josh Billings

  Intelligence, Comedy, Surprise

  7 Copy quote

• An aristocracy is the true support of a monarchy.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Support, Monarchy

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Each honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own aristocracy based on excellence.

  James Bryant Conant

  Excellence, Calling, Honest

  James Bryant Conant (1942). “Our Fighting Faith: Five Addresses to College Students”, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority s, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third.

  Bill Vaughan

  Vanity, Age, Three

  3 Copy quote

• Lords are lordliest in their wine.

  John Milton

  Wine, Society, Lord

  'Samson Agonistes' (1671) l. 1418

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• The aristocrat is the democrat ripe, and gone to seed.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Gone, Democrat, Seeds

  1850 Representative Men,'Napoleon, the Man of the World'.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Law, Decree, Can Do

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook L 44, 1799.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Crush, Political, Corporations

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.44, Cosimo, Inc.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  28 Copy quote

• Throughout my career, I was to be cast as a frontier girl, an aristocrat, an Arabian, a Eurasian, a Polynesian, and a Chinese.

  Gene Tierney

  Girl, Careers, Chinese

  Gene Tierney, Mickey Herskowitz (1979). “Self-portrait”, Peter Wyden

  77 Copy quote

  Show source

• Lawyers belong to the people by birth and interest, and to the aristocracy by habit and taste; they may be looked upon as the connecting link of the two great classes of society.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Two, Class, People

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.123, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.

  Polybius

  Historical, Democracy, Savages

  35 Copy quote

• I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strength, Crush, Hope

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.44, Cosimo, Inc.

  84 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendency.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Ingredients, Talent

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.187, Cambridge University Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The present aristocracy of western culture, at the very moment when it most clearly dominates the world, is being imitated rapidly and successfully in every eastern country.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Country, Gdp, Western Culture

  "The World, the Flesh and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul". Book by John Desmond Bernal, 1929.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source