“He who meanly admires mean things is a Snob.”
The Book of Snobs http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/snobs10.txt (1848), ch. 2.
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William Makepeace Thackeray 69
novelist 1811–1863Related quotes
“The man who worships mere wealth is a snob.”
Thackeray (1879), Ch. 2
“great gandalfs ghost!
if he had a ghost. i doubt it. he was such a snob…”
Source: Elven Star
“The pure modernist is merely a snob; he cannot bear to be a month behind the fashion.”
"The Case for the Ephemeral"
All Things Considered (1908)
Context: It is incomprehensible to me that any thinker can calmly call himself a modernist; he might as well call himself a Thursdayite. … The real objection to modernism is simply that it is a form of snobbishness. It is an attempt to crush a rational opponent not by reason, but by some mystery of superiority, by hinting that one is specially up to date or particularly "in the know." To flaunt the fact that we have had all the last books from Germany is simply vulgar; like flaunting the fact that we have had all the last bonnets from Paris. To introduce into philosophical discussions a sneer at a creed’s antiquity is like introducing a sneer at a lady’s age. It is caddish because it is irrelevant. The pure modernist is merely a snob; he cannot bear to be a month behind the fashion.
Denouncing Moratorium Day protest against Vietnam War; in NY "Times," 20 Oct 69
1840s, Past and Present (1843)