Philip Massinger Quotes

Freedom doth with degree dispense.

Class is more important than a game.

In modern civilized communities... the members of each stratum accept as their ideal of decency the scheme of life in vogue in the next higher stratum.

A Plowman on his knees is higher than a Gentleman on his legs.

Greatness, with private men Esteem'd a blessing, is to me a curse; And we, whom, for our high births, they conclude The happy freemen, are the only slaves. Happy the golden mean!

Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it.

I was no Marie Antoinette. I was not born to nobility, but I had a human right to nobility.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

I don't care if you marry someone who works at the grocery store or someone who is a director of a company; everyone should have their own identity.

The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.

I reject absolutely the idea that people should know their place, and know their class.

As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance.

It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.

Class isn't something you buy. Look at you. You have a $500 suit on and you're still a lowlife.

I am an aristocrat. I love liberty; I hate equality.

I've got to be high class... Which is sad, because I like bars.

I don't believe in social equality, and they know it.

Americans sometimes say to me that they have no class system themselves. All human beings have class systems. It can be based on a different thing in a different country, but the thing about breeding is, you can't buy it. You can't buy class.

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

When you're a plebeian you want success, and when you're successful you want to be a plebeian again.

In all my novels, a sense of place - not just geographic but social - is a critical element. I have always been drawn to the novels of Edith Wharton, among others, where social dynamics are crucial. Wharton's class consciousness fascinates me, and some of the tension in my books stems from that.

Aristocracy is naturally abhorrent to me, and adored equality is my idol.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors.

There is no distinction of persons among them, and deference is shown to merit rather than to noble blood.

The middle class is always a firm champion of equality when it concerns a class above it; but it is its inveterate foe when it concerns elevating a class below it.