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“There is only one class of men, the privileged class.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

“You had to have these peasant leaders quickly in this sort of war and a real peasant leader might be a little too much like Pablo. You couldn't wait for the real Peasant Leader to arrive and he might have too many peasant characteristics when he did. So you had to manifacture one. At that, from what he had seen of Campesino, with his black beard, his thick negroid lips, and his feverish, staring eyes, he thought he might give almost as much trouble as a real peasant leader. The last time he had seen him he seemed to have gotten to believe his own publicity and think he was a peasant.”
― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

“Had he lived some centuries ago, in the brightly coloured civilizations of the past, he would have had a definite status, his rank and his income would have corresponded. But in his day the angel of Democracy had arisen, enshadowing the classes with leathern wings, and proclaiming, "All men are equal--all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas...”
― E.M. Forster, Howards End

“She observed the dumb-show by which her neighbour was expressing her passion for music, but she refrained from copying it. This was not to say that, for once that she had consented to spend a few minutes in Mme. de Saint-Euverte's house, the Princesse des Laumes would not have wished (so that the act of politeness to her hostess which she had performed by coming might, so to speak, 'count double') to shew herself as friendly and obliging as possible. But she had a natural horror of what she called 'exaggerating,' and always made a point of letting people see that she 'simply must not' indulge in any display of emotion that was not in keeping with the tone of the circle in which she moved, although such displays never failed to make an impression upon her, by virtue of that spirit of imitation, akin to timidity, which is developed in the most self-confident persons, by contact with an unfamiliar environment, even though it be inferior to their own. She began to ask herself whether these gesticulations might not, perhaps, be a necessary concomitant of the piece of music that was being played, a piece which, it might be, was in a different category from all the music that she had ever heard before; and whether to abstain from them was not a sign of her own inability to understand the music, and of discourtesy towards the lady of the house; with the result that, in order to express by a compromise both of her contradictory inclinations in turn, at one moment she would merely straighten her shoulder-straps or feel in her golden hair for the little balls of coral or of pink enamel, frosted with tiny diamonds, which formed its simple but effective ornament, studying, with a cold interest, her impassioned neighbour, while at another she would beat time for a few bars with her fan, but, so as not to forfeit her independence, she would beat a different time from the pianist's.”
― Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way

“Why do you like Hugh better? Because he is a Viscount?'
'Well, that's one reason,' I admitted, without any false shame. Respect for degree was in my blood and I didn't think of it as snobbery.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

“Their only chance to mix with royalty was while they played Bezique. They never played any other game but this one that had grown out of the French court: it was the game of the cavaliers, a game of waiting between battles.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, Keepers of the House

“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about. Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was insightful, all books were ultimately marketed as status symbols, and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing. Presumably this was how the industry made money. Literature, in the way it appeared at these public readings, had no potential as a form of resistance to anything.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“Their own interest is the only logic they’ll listen to. Not justice, not human dignity, not the liberal freedoms they so profess to value. Profit.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“In a world where we are often told that power can corrupt, it’s essential to understand that this narrative is frequently a tool used to maintain the status quo. The idea that seeking power is inherently immoral or dangerous is a misconception, often perpetuated by those who already hold power and fear its redistribution or challenge.”
― Kevin L. Michel, The 7 Laws of Quantum Power

“Break free of the deception that exists in many cultures â€� the lie that speaks of power as inherently evil. Consider instead that weakness, poverty, and passivity, are often more dangerous than power. Weakness, poverty, and passivity often lead to paths that do not serve you individually â€� paths that do not serve us collectively, and paths that do not serve us spiritually.”
― Kevin L. Michel, The 7 Laws of Quantum Power

“A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and to act as a people or class than one that has been able to situate itself in history. This is why - and this is the only reason why - the entire art of the past has now become a political issue.”
― John Berger, Ways of Seeing

“He had the sort of bland, agreeable, rosy face which could disappear into whatever context he wished it to. He was blond but not provocatively so. The naturally dull Kent accent could be clipped and made horsey if he was trying to get to a society party, and his father’s East End adopted with relative ease when he wanted to be taken as working class.”
― Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings

“Intersectionality […] is often reduced, in common understanding, to a due consideration of the various axes of oppression and privilege: race, class, sexuality, disability, and so on. […] The central insight of intersectionality is that any liberation movement â€� feminism, anti-racism, the labor movement â€� that focuses only on what all members of the relevant group (women, people of color, the working class) have in common is a movement that will best serve those members of the group who are least oppressed.”
― Amia Srinivasan

“When you choose to keep silent infront of toxic people because you knew them already. You just don’t wanna humiliate them with the group. It’s called decent, class, sexy, expensive, valuable NOT CHEAP”
― Fatima Nacana

“Winning was always fun, but winning with class was far more important.”
― John Grisham, The Exchange

“Everybody is born with the potential to grow, but the potential to grow can only happen in a climate and atmosphere of love. The society, the state, the education system, the church, the vested interests and the media, don't provide you with the right climate for growth.
They teach you hate in such subtle ways that you never become aware that hatred is being taught. You are being poisoned, and your source of love is destroyed. Nationality, religion, class, gender and race mean hatred. If you are loving humanity is one. Then there are no countries, boundaries and divisions. Love unites and hatred divides.
The whole society is rotted in hatred. The society is continuously preparing for hatred and war. The history of humanity can be divided into two periods: peace and war. But the so-called peace is just a preparation for war. Every war is so destructive that it takes almost ten years to have another war.
Humanity is just insane. And when people continuously prepare for war, they
become like animals. They even become worse than animals, because animals have a certain nobility and they don't kill for cruelty, but man falls below that.
Man can grow only through love. It is only in the climate of love that man can grow. It is love that makes you a human being for the first time.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Man is Part of the Whole: Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Compassion, Freedom and Grace

“Whoever this other woman was she couldn't have been classy. You wouldn't catch me dead living in a place like this.”
― Philip Anthony Smith, The Woman He Left Behind

“A lady knows whether she has the figure to wear tight clothing. She knows that just because an item of clothing comes in her size does not mean she should wear it.”
― Candace Simpson-Giles, How to Be a Lady: A Contemporary Guide to Common Courtesy

“Meritocracy is a false and not very salutary belief. As with any ideology, part of its draw is that it justifies the status quo, explaining why people belong where they happen to be in the social order. It is a well-established psychological principle that people prefer to believe that the world is just.

However, in addition to legitimation, meritocracy also offers flattery. Where success is determined by merit, each win can be viewed as a reflection of one’s own virtue and worth. Meritocracy is the most self-congratulatory of distribution principles. Its ideological alchemy transmutes property into praise, material inequality into personal superiority. It licenses the rich and powerful to view themselves as productive geniuses. While this effect is most spectacular among the elite, nearly any accomplishment can be viewed through meritocratic eyes. Graduating from high school, artistic success or simply having money can all be seen as evidence of talent and effort. By the same token, worldly failures becomes signs of personal defects, providing a reason why those at the bottom of the social hierarchy deserve to remain there. ("A Belief in Meritocracy Is Not Only False: It’s Bad for You", Aeon)”
― Clifton Mark

“Without actually making that confession, her mind went on to imagine what a real love might have been. But such loves do not come in the way of the Miss Moles of this world, and now she was nearly forty. And thinking thus, she allowed the threatening wave of her loneliness, avoided for so long, to sweep over her, and she stood still in the street, helpless while it engulfed her. It fell back, leaving her battered, but on her feet, and longing for a hand to help her upward before she could be swamped again, but she longed in vain and it was a weary woman who walked up Beresford Road and found no comfort in the ruby glow of Mr. Samson’s window curtains. She assumed her usual look of competence as soon as she entered the house. Employers do not expect their servants to have visible emotions, and professional pride straightened her back when she went into the dining room.”
― E.H. Young, Miss Mole

“Not The Done Thing by Stewart Stafford

Pass the strawberry conserve here,
Layer some cream on top,
This is how one eats scones, my dear,
We’re not pigs feeding in a trough.

Pinky raised when you sip tea,
No slurping sounds escaping your mouth,
Cucumber sandwiches in tiny triangles,
Crusts of bread all cut out.

Drawing room dramas over cordials ensue,
Gossip exchanged with finest manners,
Secrets kept as the cabal breaks up,
The public face flew on their banners.

© 2021, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Got cash? Got class? Get judicial pass!”
― Dipti Dhakul

“The working class is the creative class; the working class produces what material wealth exists in a country. And while power is not in their hands, while the working class allows power to remain in the hands of the bosses who exploit them, in the hands of the landlords, the speculators, the monopolies, and in the hands of foreign and national interest groups, while armaments are in the hands of those who service these interest groups and not in their own hands, the working class will be forced to lead a miserable existence no matter how many crumbs those interest groups should let fall from their banquet table.”
― Fidel Castro

“Going high is demonstrative, a commitment to showing your children, your friends, your colleagues, and your community what it looks like to live with love and operate with decency. Because in the end, at least in my experience, what you put out for others--whether it's hope or hatred--will only create more of the same.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“It is true that Harvard and Yale, as well as other upper-class institutions, offer free tuition, some cash scholarships, and nominal paid employment to the highest-ranking graduates of accredited secondary schools, without regard for the social class origins of these students.

One can, it is true, meet a coal miner's or a farmer's son at Harvard, although it is a rare experience.

The task of Yale and Harvard, however, is to mold these bright youngsters into unconscious servitors of the ruling class—as lawyers, as corporate scientists, as civil servants, as brokers, bankers, and clergymen. The enforced "democratic" mingling effected by the new house plans assures this result more positively now than ever, for in the past, many students were made to feel like pariahs by their exclusion from the quasi-aristocratic clubs.”
― Ferdinand Lundberg, America's 60 Families

“One class presses on another; for all are aiming to procure respect on account of their property: and property, once gained, will procure the respect due only to talents and virtue. Men neglect the duties incumbent on man, yet are treated like demi-gods; religion is also separated from morality by a ceremonial veil, yet men wonder that the world is almost, literally speaking, a den of sharpers or oppressors.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“The preposterous distinctions of rank, which render civilization a curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants, and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class of people, because respectability is not attached to the discharge of the relative duties of life, but to the station, and when the duties are not fulfilled the affections cannot gain sufficient strength to fortify the virtue of which they are the natural reward. Still there are some loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think and act for himself; but for a woman it is an herculean task, because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome, which require almost super-human powers.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“We know that the sensibility of the psyche depends for its intensity upon the liveliness, for its scope upon the richness, of the imagination. The preponderance of the analytical faculty must, however, of necessity, deprive the imagination of its energy and warmth, while a more restricted sphere of objects must reduce its wealth. Hence, the abstract thinker very often has a cold heart, since he dissects his impressions, and impressions can move the soul only as long as they remain whole; while the man of practical affairs often has a narrow heart, since his imagination, imprisoned within the unvarying confines of his own calling, is incapable of extending itself to appreciate other ways of seeing and knowing.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“Girls like me were a waste of time for doctors. With no money and no connections - otherwise we wouldn't accidentally end up on their doorstep - we were a constant reminder of the law that could send them to prison and close down their practice for good. They would never tell us the truth, that they weren't prepared to sacrifice their career for some young doe-eyed damsel foolish enough to get knocked up. Or maybe their sense of duty was such that they would have chosen to die rather than break a law that could cost women their lives. They must have assumed that most women would go through with the abortion anyway, in spite of the ban. All in all, plunging a knitting needle into a womb weighed little next to ruining one's career.”
― Annie Ernaux, Happening

“I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do”
― Chief Joseph