Sunday, April 13, 2008 – Elitism
Innovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public. ~ Ludwig von Mises
Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good. ~ George F. Will
Elitism – It’s lonely at the top. But it’s comforting to look down upon everyone at the bottom. ~ Larry Kersten
Chinks in America’s egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism. ~ Florence King
With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it; I say, with the handful, for the handful, by the handful, cause that’s what really happens. ~ Fannie Lou Hamer
For men are not equal: thus speaks justice. And what I want, they are not permitted to want! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Little prigs and three-quarter madmen may have the conceit that the laws of nature are constantly broken for their sakes. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it. ~ Bernard Bailey
In men this blunder still you find, All think their little set mankind. ~ Hannah More, Florio (part I)
Faith, that’s as well said as if I had said it myself. ~ Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (dialogue II)
Always hold your head up but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level. ~ Max L. Forman
I don’t believe in elitism. I don’t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience. ~ Quentin Tarantino
We would not listen to those who were wont to say the voice of the people is the voice of God, for the voice of the mob is near akin to madness. [Nec audiendi sunt qui solent dicere vox populi, vox dei; cum tumultus vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.] ~ Alcuin (Albinus), Epistle to Charlemagne (vol. I, p. 191), (Froben’s ed. 1771)
The public! Why, the public’s nothing better than a great baby. ~ Thomas Chalmers, in a letter, quoted by Ruskin, “Sesame and Lilies”
For who can be secure of private right, If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might? Nor is the people’s judgment always true: The most may err as grossly as the few. ~ John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel
The man in the street does not know a star in the sky. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life – Worship
The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things — war and hunger and date rape — liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal. ~ P. J. O’Rourke
No whispered rumors which the many spread can wholly perish. ~ Hesiod, Works and Days (I, 763)
If the business community and political elite want to go to war they find it easy to mobilize domestic consent. ~ Edward S. Herman
The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed. ~ Susan Sontag
People who bowl vote. Bowlers are not the cultural elite. ~ Dan Quayle
What we are headed for is a sort of social structure in which the highbrows are the elite, the middlebrows are the bourgeoisie and the lowbrows are hoi polloi. ~ J. Russell Lynes
I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do. ~ Oscar Wilde
Just Above Sunset 