“The United States is in sore need today of an aristocracy of intellect and service. Because such an aristocracy does not exist in the popular consciousness, we are bending the knee to the golden calf of money. The form of monarchy and its pomp offer a valuable foil to the worship of money for its own sake. A democracy must provide itself with a foil of its own and none is better or more effective than an aristocracy of intellect and service.”

— Nicholas Murray Butler

Address to the Students of University of California, Berkeley (March 23, 1907) as reported in The New York Times, March 24, 1907.

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Nicholas Murray Butler17

American philosopher, diplomat, and educator 1862–1947

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