Aristocracy Quotes - Page 9

• Here in England the welfare of the State depends on the conduct of our aristocracy.

  Anthony Trollope

  Politics, England, Welfare

  Anthony Trollope (1874). “Lady Anna”, p.292

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• Aristocracy is a relative thing. And there are plenty of out-of-the-way places where the son of an upholsterer is the arbiter of fashion and reigns over a court like any young Prince of Wales.

  Marcel Proust

  Fashion, Son, Reign

  Marcel Proust (1982). “Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's way. Within a budding grove”, Vintage

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• What I used to respect was not really aristocracy, but a set of personal qualities which aristocracy then developed better than any other system . . . a set of qualities, however, whose merit lay only in a psychology of non-calculative, non-competitive disinterestedness, truthfulness, courage, and generosity fostered by good education, minimum economic stress, and assumed position, AND JUST AS ACHIEVABLE THROUGH SOCIALISM AS THROUGH ARISTOCRACY.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Stress, Personal Qualities, Generosity

  Letter to C.L. Moore (c. mid-October 1936), in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, (p. 566), 1996.

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• The Jews are among the aristocracy of every land; if a literature is called rich in the possession of a few classic tragedies, what shall we say to a national tragedy lasting for fifteen hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the heroes.

  George Eliot

  Hero, Years, Land

  Daniel Deronda bk. 6, ch. 42 (1876)

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• The Senate was the equivalent of an aristocracy at the beginning. Senators were not even elected; they were appointed in the early days. Then that changed, and senators did become elected. But the Senate is designed to slow down out-of-control, madcap activity elsewhere in the legislative branch (i.e., in the House), and the 60-vote rule was part of that.

  Rush Limbaugh

  House, Branches, Vote

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• The country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and moneyed incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling...I hope we shall...crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to trial and bid defiance to the laws of our country. I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Crush, Country, Believe

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• An hereditary aristocracy... will change the form of our governments from the best to the worst in the world.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, World, Form

  Thomas Jefferson (1830). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.63

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• I mean, already in the French Revolution, the harpsichord becomes identified with the aristocracy, with the ancien regime. Plus, hey, you know, I mean, harpsichord is a really easy target, isn't it? I mean, it's - it's just how it is.

  Mahan Esfahani

  Mean, Revolution, Target

  "How To Annoy Your Dad: Play The Harpsichord". "All Things Considered" with Robert Siegel, www.npr.org. December 29, 2015.

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• Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous effort, like distinction and success will almost surely follow. Thus the chain of example is carried down through time in an endless succession of links--admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true aristocracy of genius.

  Samuel Smiles

  Men, Light, Flames

  Samuel Smiles (2009). “Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.528, The Floating Press

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• The artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf before the noble of nature; and in the few instances (for there are some in all countries) in whom nature, as by a miracle, has survived in aristocracy, those men despise it.

  Thomas Paine

  Country, Men, Dwarves

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

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• One of the interesting things is is that Judaism was very attractive to the Roman aristocracy.

  Susan Jacoby

  Interesting, Attractive, Judaism

  "'Strange Gods' Chronicles The History Of Secularism And Conversion". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. February 17, 2016.

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• The aristocracy of feudal parchment has passed away with a mighty rushing, and now, by a natural course, we arrive at aristocracy of the money-bag.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Class, Rushing, Bags

  Thomas Carlyle (1839). “The French Revolution: A History”, p.390

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• The fate of you, the aristocracy of industry, will be as the fate of the aristocracy of land if you do not show that you have some humanity still among you.

  James Larkin

  Fate, Land, Humanity

  James Larkin (1995*). “In the footsteps of Big Jim: a family biography”, Blackwater Press

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• To the feudal aristocracy and the aristocracy of the spirit, nobility derives from diametrically opposite sources. The glory of the feudal aristocrat is in being a link in the longest possible chain of ancestors. The glory of the aristocrat of the spirit is in having no ancestors - or having as few as possible. If an artist is his own ancestor, if he has only descendents, he enters history as a genius; if he has few ancestors, or is related to them distantly, he enters history as a talent.

  Yevgeny Zamyatin

  Inspirational, Art, Opposites

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• Oxford is a little aristocracy in itself, numerous and dignified enough to rank with other estates in the realm; and where fame and secular promotion are to be had for study, and in a direction which has the unanimous respect of all cultivated nations.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Respect, Oxford, Littles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.354, Penguin

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• If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Blood, Europe, Circles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1476, Delphi Classics

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• Thus, experience has ever shown, that education, as well as religion, aristocracy, as well as democracy and monarchy, are, singly, totally inadequate to the business of restraining the passions of men, of preserving a steady government, and protecting the lives, liberties, and properties of the people . . . . Religion, superstition, oaths, education, laws, all give way before passions, interest, and power, which can be resisted only by passions, interest, and power.

  John Adams

  Passion, Men, Law

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• Aristocracy is kept up by family tyranny and injustice.

  Thomas Paine

  Injustice, Tyranny

  Thomas Paine (1791). “Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.74

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• The tea-kettle is as much an English institution as aristocracy or the Prayer-Book.

  Catharine Beecher

  Prayer, Book, Tea

  Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe (2008). “American Woman's Home”, p.188, Applewood Books

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• Consider Ireland.... You have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and in addition the weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish Question.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Church, Population, World

  'Hansard' 16 February 1844

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• Sometimes it seems that we might have been happier if we had once had an aristocracy to blame everything on.

  Anatole Broyard

  Government, Might, Blame

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• The faith in reason insists that the poverty of democracy offers a greater hope for mankind than the prosperity that attaches itself to aristocracy or despotism.

  Bill Vaughan

  Democracy, Poverty, Prosperity

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• Power always becomes consolidated back into the hands of very few people... whether they be an economic aristocracy, a royalty, a monarchy which is the most concentrated form of oligarchy where it depends on one King who is ordained supposedly by God to rule.

  Immortal Technique

  Kings, Hands, People

  Source: www.hiphopcanada.com

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• Archbishop Romero of El Salvador was a member of the Salvadoran aristocracy. He could not have risen to the top of the church hierarchy otherwise. But after he began voicing critical remarks about the war and concerned comments about the poor, he was assassinated.

  Michael Parenti

  War, Political, Church

  Michael Parenti (1996). “Dirty Truths”, p.189, City Lights Books

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• The principle of avoiding the unnecessary expenditure of energy has enabled the species to survive in a world full of stimuli; but it prevents the survival of the aristocracy.

  Rebecca West

  Survival, Energy, Principles

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews”, p.146, Open Road Media

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