Aristocracy Quotes

“Meritocracy”

“History is a graveyard of aristocracies.”

“Aristocrats need not be rich, but they must be free.”

“When the aristocracy catches a cold, as it is said, the working class dies of pneumonia.”

“Egalitarians adjust to aristocracies just fine, as long as they get to be the aristocrats.”

“Wikipedia: Aristocracy”

“I like aristocracy. I like the beauty of aristocracy. I like the hierarchical feeling.”

“Education is, after all, something thoroughly "aristocratic" in the intellectual sense.”

“[I]n proportion as slavery prevails in a State, the Government, however democratic in name, must be aristocratic in fact.”

“Aristocracy of the mind … is the only true aristocracy in my opinion. It is the essence, the very life of a well-built society.”

“An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off: it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead.”

“In aristocratic societies, enjoyments of the mind are particularly demanded of the sciences; in democratic, those of the body.”

“The aristocrat looks to a society in which there shall be absolute freedom for noble men. Anarchism declares for the absolute nobility of free men.”

“Aristocracies are of three kinds: (1) of birth and rank; (2) of wealth; and (3) of intellect. The last is really the most distinguished of the three.”

“Aristocracy in general does not favour individualism; it bases its claim to privilege upon virtues which are common to the whole class or at least to whole clans.”

“It is a curious fact that the more democratic a country becomes, the less respect it has for its rulers. Aristocracies and foreign conquerors may be hated but they are not despised.”

“ARISTOCRACY, n. Government by the best men. (In this sense the word is obsolete; so is that kind of government.) Fellows that wear downy hats and clean shirts -- guilty of education and suspected of bank accounts.”

“At all times and in all places, the aristocracy commands. Whatever form is given to governments, birth and wealth always obtain the first rank, and nowhere do they rule more harshly than where their dominion is not founded on law.”

“I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents... The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society...”

“Aristocracy's only an admission that certain traits which we call fine – courage and honor and beauty and all that sort of thing – can best be developed in a favorable environment, where you don't have the warpings of ignorance and necessity.”