Roger Spottiswoode Quotes

Rich is not better.

There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents;... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy.

I'm not interested in classes ... Far be it from me to foster inferiority complexes among the workers by trying to make them think they belong to some special class.

May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?

Is class snobbery a social reality in the United States? Absolutely, and the kind that's codified by meritocracy is probably more toxic than the old-fashioned kind based on bloodlines.

Money doesn't buy class.

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human being become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of respectability at a commensurate speed.

To be prosperous is not to be superior, and should form no barrier between men. Wealth ought not to secure the prosperous the slightest consideration.

The rich do not want people who come from poor families to rise to the highest position in the country.

There's always been a nasty strain of class prejudice ingrained in the condemnation of football's 'undeserving rich,' as if the working class is uniquely susceptible to being corrupted by money, and as if they deserve their wealth less than those born to it.

Wherever the appearance of a conventional aristocracy exists in America, it must arise from wealth, as it cannot from birth. An aristocracy of mere wealth is vulgar everywhere. In a republic, it is vulgar in the extreme.

Money is a great dignifier.

That rich guy you've been seeing, must have put you down. Welcome back baby, to the poor side of town.

If you are poor, shun association with him who measures men with the yardstick of riches.

Class envy is dangerous.

Being a posh actor in England you cannot escape the class-typing from whatever side you look at it.

My wife thinks I have an obsession with social class. So I guess I have an obsession with social class. It probably stems from feeling like an outcast.

Class still matters in Britain today.

Americans have so far put up with inequality because they felt they could change their status. They didn't mind others being rich, as long as they had a path to move up as well. The American Dream is all about social mobility in a sense - the idea that anyone can make it.

It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.

And understand: class differences will not save you.

England is obsessed with where you came from, and they are determined to keep you in that place, be it in a drawing room or in the gutter.

Capitalism and democracy are the opposite of each other. Capitalism is a system that guarantees that a few are going to do very well, and everybody else is going to serve the few. Democracy means everybody has a seat at the table. Everybody.

I wasn't born into land or titles, or new money, or an oil rig.

So, there's like one luxury you take and since we do that, y'know, you're involved with people in suits; business people all the time. But hey, if I sit down on a bar and they leave, good for me.