#aristocracy

I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. ↗

— Eugene Victor Debs

#capitalism #feudalism #inequality #justice #labor

There might be cheats or possible cheats amongst them, men who beat their wives, men with perverse instincts, greedy men, cowardly men, lying men; but the elegance of the room invested each one with a kind of aristocracy. ↗

— Ian Fleming

#cards #cheaters #elegance #men

Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of us has ever been permitted to think he is born a d'Anconia. We are expected to become one. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#aristocracy #birthright #meritocracy #nobility #talent

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

#aristocracy #fate #humanity #industry #land

London is a good fashion city. They're a little more daring. There's the element of the aristocracy, which is always interesting. ↗

— John Legend

#aristocracy #city #daring #element #fashion

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

#actual #any #aristocracy #cannot #decree

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

#aristocracy #background #chivalry #civilization #exalted

There are a lot of books about the passing of the English aristocracy, but the vast majority of Long Islanders don't understand their own backyard. It's a private preserve. ↗

— Nelson DeMille

#aristocracy #backyard #books #english #long

Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, Socrates considered the government to be an aristocracy. ↗

— Xenophon

#appointed #aristocracy #complied #considered #government

Ninety-nine per cent of traditional English literature concerns people who never have to worry about money at all. We always seem to be watching or reading about emotional crises among folk who live in a world of great fortune both in matters of luck and money; stories and fantasies about rock stars and film stars, sporting millionaires and models; jet-setting members of the aristocracy and international financiers. ↗

— James Kelman

#crises #emotional #english-literature #fortune #money