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

Source: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. 41

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 23, 2022. History

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Georges Duhamel23

French writer 1884–1966

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism

“What is liberal education,” p. 5
Liberalism Ancient and Modern (1968)

“They began to consider the Aristocracy as a kind of fungus growing out of the corruption of society, that could not be admitted even as a branch of it…”

Thomas Paine book Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and wellbeing will be shared by all; the sciences will be on a smaller scale but ignorance will be less common; opinions will be less vigorous and habits gentler; you will notice more vices and fewer crimes.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Original text: [...] si l'on y rencontre moins d'éclat qu'au sein d'une aristocratie, on y trouvera moins de misères; les jouissances y seront moins extrêmes, et le bien-être plus général; les sciences moins grandes, et l'ignorance plus rare; les sentiments moins énergiques, et les habitudes plus douces; on y remarquera plus de vices et moins de crimes.
Introduction.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)

“If only the specialist is to be allowed access to these books, on the ground that it is impossible to understand them without "scholarship," … then we shall be compelled to shut out the majority of mankind from some of the finest creations of the human mind. This is aristocracy with a vengeance.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

“There is no right in the world not to be offended. That right simply doesn’t exist. In a free society, an open society, people have strong opinions, and these opinions very often clash. In a democracy, we have to learn to deal with this. And this is true about novels, it’s true about cartoons, it’s true about all these products.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

The Hindu interview (2012)

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Source: The Philosophy of Aristotle

“Our opinion at the time was that National Socialism and the Communism of the Soviet Republic were sort of 'siblings.’ And it may also be that this attitude was peculiar especially to an Austrian SS member. For his enemies at that time were not Social Democracy and Communism; these were combated by the Austrian aristocracy as much as he himself was;…”

Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer

False Gods: The Jerusalem Memoirs, London: UK, Black House Publishing (2015) p. 75

“Liberty is on the march, and this year promises to be a great year in European history. Our Government is blind enough, and the Parliamentary majorities are more regarded than opinion out of doors. We must have another League of some kind, and our aristocracy must be made to submit again.”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

Letter to Jonathan Priestman (26 March 1848) on the Revolutions of 1848, quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), p. 183.
1840s

“Keep in mind that this is only my opinion, but also keep in mind that I'm always right. (The Only Good Comics on the Internet)”

Ben Croshaw (1983) English video game journalist

Fully Ramblomatic, Features

“There was autocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. So surely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. The fate of you, the aristocracy of industry, will be as the fate of the aristocracy of land if you do not now show that you have some humanity still among you. Humanity abhors, above all things, a vacuum in itself, and your class will be cut off from humanity as the surgeon cuts the cancer and alien growth from the body. Be warned ere it is too late.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

Open letter to the Masters of Dublin (1913)

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

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