Aristocracy Quotes

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

  Polybius

  Historical, Democracy, Savages

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• Aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human species.

  Thomas Paine

  Degenerates, Tendencies, Humans

  Thomas Paine (2003). “Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of ThomasPaine”, p.196, Penguin

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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• I like aristocracy. I like the beauty of aristocracy. I like the hierarchical feeling.

  James Salter

  Feelings

  Interview with Thad Ziolkowski, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 1, 2013.

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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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• 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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• 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

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• 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

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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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• The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him is aristocracy.

  Emily Dickinson

  Spring, Food, Animal

  "The pedigree of honey" l.1 (ca. 1884)

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

  Josh Billings

  Intelligence, Comedy, Surprise

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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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• An aristocracy is the true support of a monarchy.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Support, Monarchy

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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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• 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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