Aristocracy

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States.

All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist and dramatist.

I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) Irish writer, poet, and physician.

Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) British political writer.

Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) French novelist, essayist and dramatist.

A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and dukes are just as great a terror -- and they last longer.

David Lloyd George (1863-1945) British statesman.

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 (1742-1799) German scientist, satirist and anglophile.

Lords are lordliest in their wine.

John Milton (1608-1674) English poet.

It is nobler to be good, and it is nobler to teach others to be good, and less trouble!

Mark Twain (1835-1910) U.S. humorist, writer, and lecturer.

You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the one book a young man about town should know thoroughly, and it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet and dramatist.