Quotes about class
page 27

Dorothy Thompson photo

“Today in Germany the winner of the last Nobel peace prize is considered a traitor, and to attend any peace meeting would make one a candidate for a concentration camp. Today in Italy there is only one morality: the power and glory of Italy. Today in Russia all children are brought up to despise and hate ‘the class enemy.’”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 35

Benjamin Disraeli photo
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo
Rebecca West photo
Edward Norton photo

“An all-too-common reaction to something like racism is to hate the act so much you dismiss the person. But in [American History X] you're forced to confront the complexity of the character and his tragedy - and the fact, which people don't want to recognise, that someone like him can come out of a normal middle-class home.”

Edward Norton (1969) american actor

" Edward Norton is up for an Oscar. But who is he? https://web.archive.org/web/20190324033705/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/mar/19/awardsandprizes" (archived), theguardian.com, 19 March 1999.

Issa Rae photo

“I was trying to stand out, trying to be the class clown and be super-funny. But everybody thought I was lame and hated me…I’ve experienced that real sense of feeling out of place plenty in my life.”

Issa Rae (1985) American actress and writer

Source: On how her adolescent experiences partly shaped Insecure in “Issa Rae: ‘I’ve not started writing season four of Insecure yet. We needed a break’” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/13/issa-rae-interview-insecure-little in The Guardian (2019 Apr 13)

Dorothy Thompson photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“We have not taken and we shall not take a single backward step. There must be no second class citizens in this country.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Letter to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (June 6, 1953); Source: United States of America Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 84th Congress, First Session, Volume 101, Part 8, July 1, 1955 to July 19, 1955 (Pages 9697 to 11002), here page 9743 https://books.google.de/books?id=iOsH3GosOr4C&pg=PA9743&lpg=PA9743&dq=We+have+not+taken+and+we+shall+not+take+a+single+backward+step.+There+must+be+no+second+class+citizens+in+this+country.&source=bl&ots=K03o4EGJa7&sig=ACfU3U0UNcrI-GB16SjdgDCoI3g2chwJkg&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVu9eS9rzuAhUJkhQKHeSKBNEQ6AEwBXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=We%20have%20not%20taken%20and%20we%20shall%20not%20take%20a%20single%20backward%20step.%20There%20must%20be%20no%20second%20class%20citizens%20in%20this%20country.&f=false.
1950s

John Strachey photo
Leo Tolstoy photo

“The universal hypocrisy has so entered into the flesh and blood of all classes of our modern society, it has reached such a pitch that nothing in that way can rouse indignation. Hypocrisy in the Greek means "acting," and acting—playing a part—is always possible.”

Variant Translation: Hypocrisy with good reason means the same as acting, and anybody can pretend — act a part.
Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Chapter XII, Conclusion—Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Leo Tolstoy photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo
Matthew Stover photo
William Ewart Gladstone photo
William Ewart Gladstone photo
Felix Adler photo
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn photo
Stanley Baldwin photo

“The Conservatives can't talk of class war: they started it.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin (1952), p. 31
Undated

“Earth had always operated on a continuous-growth model that requires a poverty class. Sustainable models require productive work by all members and are quite different.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Margarets (2007), Chapter 32, “I Am Gretamara/On Mars” (p. 272)

Jay Samit photo
Jay Samit photo

“No democracy can survive without a thriving middle class and entrepreneurs are our job creators.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Sai Paranjpye photo

“I always like to maintain that I am a writer first and then a director. But unfortunately, I am not known as much as a writer. I am a first-class writer and a second-class director.”

Sai Paranjpye (1938) Indian film director

The Hindu article by Arti Das - I am a first-class writer and a second-class director: Sai Paranjpye https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/i-am-a-first-class-writer-and-a-second-class-director-sai-paranjpye/article26606850.ece - 23 March 2019 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210901092539/https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/i-am-a-first-class-writer-and-a-second-class-director-sai-paranjpye/article26606850.ece
Quotes from Sai Paranjpye

Carl Oglesby photo

“Culture, ... that standard shield of class, is allowed to surface only in order to become more evidence of ... vanity.”

Carl Oglesby (1935–2011) American political activist

"The Deserters: The Contemporary Defeat of Fiction" (1972)

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo
Julian Fellowes photo

“One of the ironies in social climbing is that if you are successful, your children will ultimately belong to a different class from yours. There is something sad in that this was your ambition, yet if you achieve it, you have in a sense alienated yourself from your own children.”

Julian Fellowes (1949) English actor, dramatist, director, novelist, producer and screenwriter

Q&A with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes https://britishheritage.com/interviews/downton-abbey-julian-fellowes (July 22, 2021)

William Winwood Reade photo
Hugh Gaitskell photo
Joe Biden photo

“Look, I don’t want to punish anyone’s success, but the wealthy have been getting a free ride at the expense of the middle class for too long.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

I intend to pass one of the biggest middle class tax cuts ever — paid for by making those at the top pay their fair share.
Source: https://whdh.com/news/democrats-look-to-tax-people-earning-more-than-400k-no-one-else-for-3-5-trillion-bill/ Democrats look to tax people earning more than $400K, no one else for $3.5 trillion bill (September 14, 2021)

Joe Armstrong photo

“The greatest beneficiaries of the modern welfare state, after all, were the middle classes.”

Tony Judt (1948–2010) British historian

Chap. 14 : Diminished Expectations
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)

Bong Joon-ho photo

“I grew up in a middle-class family. Even in terms of real estate, the house that I grew up in is in the middle – between the semi-basement home and the rich house you see in the film. I was really close with friends and relatives from both classes.”

Bong Joon-ho (1969) South Korean film director and screenwriter

As quoted in "Parasite director Bong Joon-ho: 'Korea seems glamorous, but the young are in despair" in The Guardian (31 January 2020) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jan/31/parasite-director-bong-joon-ho-korea-seems-glamorous-but-the-young-are-in-despair

Ramsay MacDonald photo

“We want no injustice done to other people. I do not appeal to you merely as a class, but I do appeal to you workers to form yourselves into an organisation which will use political power in order to protect our human conditions and give you fair play in life.”

Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) British statesman; prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the Hippodrome, Darlington (25 May 1929), quoted in The Times (27 May 1929), p. 9
1920s

Johann Kaspar Lavater photo

“There are but three classes of men — the retrograde, the stationary, the progressive.”

Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss poet

No. 371
Aphorisms on Man (1788)

Honoré de Balzac photo

“However the three classes of beings created by the manners are:
The man who works;
The man who thinks;
The man who does nothing.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

Part I. Généralités (Generalities), Chapter I. Prolégomènes (Prolegomena).
Treatise on Elegant Life (1830)
Original: (fr) Or les trois classes d'être créés par les mœurs sont :
L'homme qui travaille ;
L'homme qui pense ;
L'homme qui ne fait rien.

Jonathan Haidt photo

“First, kill all the math classes beyond algebra. Stop wasting so much of our students’ time learning math. It’s not useful, it’s not helpful.”

Jonathan Haidt (1963) American psychologist

Source: Knowledge@Wharton https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-righteous-mind-why-liberals-and-conservatives-cant-get-along/ (2013)

Jiang Qing photo

“The establishment of troops in the cultural circles has this problem: the class element is relatively complicated. But, while a person cannot decide his own origin, his performance and attitude still count.”

Jiang Qing (1914–1991) Chinese political figure and wife of Mao Zedong

Source: Talk at the Peking Forum on Literature and Art (9 and 12 November 1967)

Denis Healey photo

“We did not want middle class.”

Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer

Source: On Tony Benn; remark to the Shadow Cabinet (31 July 1972), quoted in Tony Benn, Office Without Power: Diaries 1968–72 (1988), p. 441

Vera Stanley Alder photo
Liu Shaoqi photo

“For the Chinese national revolution to succeed, the participation of the masses of all classes and the building of a united front of all classes are necessary. But among the classes taking part in the national revolution, the working class and the peasantry constitute the main force.”

Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) 2nd President of the People's Republic of China (1898-1969)

Source: "Mr. Liao Zhongkai and Worker and Peasant Policy" https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/liu-shaoqi/1926/09/26.htm (26 September 1926)

Louis Veuillot photo

“If I could re-establish a class of nobles, I should do so at once, and I would not belong to it.”

Louis Veuillot (1813–1883) French journalist

Source: Jules Lemaître: Jean Jacques Rousseau (1907), pg 266

“After creating the “political class,” journalists failed to set parameters for person in that class.”

Grace Alele-Williams (1932–2022) mathematician

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/journalists-not-evaluating-politicians-alele-williams/ Speaking at a meeting organised by Initiative for Moral Rectitude in Society (IMRS).

Ben Aaronovitch photo

“The difference between stripping and burlesque, as far as I could tell, was class.”

Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 6, “The Empress of Pleasure” (p. 121)

Robert Lee Scott Jr. photo

“The only time I've ever been moderately successful is in combat was in the bottom of my class at West Point because of a goat mind. And a goat is the bottom of the bottom.”

Robert Lee Scott Jr. (1908–2006) Brigadier General in the United States Air Force

Source: "Gen. Robert L. Scott" in The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2006/03/01/gen-robert-l-scott/b5a0d04e-7d3b-4189-9490-92489a10a78d/ (1 March 2006)

Mikheil Saakashvili photo

“Well, killing me makes no sense because Georgia already has a Western-educated political class.”

Mikheil Saakashvili (1967) Georgian-Ukrainian politician, President of Georgia and Governor of Odessa

Interview with the New York Times (2008)
Source: As quoted in "An American Friend" https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/magazine/19WWln-q4-t.html (19 October 2008), The New York Times

Alfred Austin photo
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell photo
Kyūichi Tokuda photo
Joe Biden photo

“I intend to pass one of the biggest middle class tax cuts ever — paid for by making those at the top pay their fair share.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Democrats look to tax people earning more than $400K, no one else for $3.5 trillion bill (September 14, 2021) https://whdh.com/news/democrats-look-to-tax-people-earning-more-than-400k-no-one-else-for-3-5-trillion-bill/
2021, September 2021

Fala Chen photo

“In China, literally in elementary school, we have to sit a certain way. You can't raise your hand anytime, you can’t speak in class. So, it takes a lot of courage and experimenting to kind of try to break that.”

Fala Chen (1982) Hong Kong actress

"Fala Chen Came to America to Find Herself—And Wound Up Being Cast in a Groundbreaking Marvel Movie" in Harpers Bazaar https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a37711969/fala-chen-shang-chi-and-the-legend-of-the-ten-rings/ (24 September 2021)

Joe Biden photo

“[W]hen we invest in strengthening workers and the middle class, the poor have a ladder up, and those at the top do just fine. That’s how we can increase opportunity and decrease persistent inequity.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks by President Biden at the Inaugural Ceremony of the Ninth Summit of the Americas

Trường Chinh photo

“The working class must provide firm leadership to the people's national democratic revolution and cannot share it with any other class, least of all let it fall into the hands of the national bourgeoisie.”

Trường Chinh (1907–1988) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907-1988)

Foward Along the Path Charted by Karl Marx (1968) (excerpts)

Vitali Klitschko photo

“The problem we've encountered is the inept policies of the whole ruling class of the country, and we shouldn't be looking to the people for the reason”

Vitali Klitschko (1971) Ukrainian boxer and politician

behind them
2013
Source: [Кличко: Я не вижу себя в правительстве Януковича. Нет смысла подымать этот вопрос, https://gordonua.com/news/maidan/kichko-ya-ne-vizhu-sebya-v-pravitelstve-yanukovicha-7366.html, 2022-06-13, gordonua.com]

“Our main concern now is to bring peace to the hearts of the people. Schools have an important role in this since classes have children of different ethnic groups and this is where they can be educated to live side by side.”

Angelo Moreschi (1952–2020) Italian Catholic Bishop

Slowly Calm Returns to Gambella After Fierce Ethnic Clashes. Concern for 16,000 People in Flight Towards Sudan http://www.fides.org/en/news/1553-AFRICA_ETHIOPIA_SLOWLY_CALM_RETURNS_TO_GAMBELLA_AFTER_FIERCE_ETHNIC_CLASHES_CONCERN_FOR_16_000_PEOPLE_IN_FLIGHT_TOWARDS_SUDAN (20 January 2004)

Benito Mussolini photo

“How does it come about that we are said to be sold to the middle class, capitalism and the Government? But already our enemies dare no longer continue this accusation, so false and ridiculous it is.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

“Fascismo’s Interests for the Working Classes” speech delivered at Prato della Marfisia in Ferrara (4 April 1921) p. 76
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

Elizabeth Blackwell photo

“For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.”

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) England-born American physician, abolitionist, women's rights activist

Quoted in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.
Medicine and Morality (1881)

Joe Biden photo