William Shenstone Quotes

Scarcely anything that I observed in the United States caused me so much sorrow as the contemptuous estimate of the people entertained by those who were bowing the knee to be permitted to serve them.

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

All the people I know have been conditioned by snobbery.

Everyone has class, one class or another.

In my opinion butlers ought To know their place, and not to play The Old Retainer night and day.

For my own part, I had rather suffer any inconvenience from having to work occasionally in chambers and kitchen... than witness the subservience in which the menial class is held in Europe.

No white man, in a slaveholding community, was the menial servant of anyone.

Character and class are character and class. Either you have it or you don't.

There is nothing to which men cling more tenaciously than the privileges of class.

By nature servile, people attempt at first glance to find signs of good breeding in the appearance of those who occupy more exalted stations.

There are people enough to tread upon me in my lowly state, without my doing outrage to their feelings by possessing learning. Learning ain't for me. A person like myself had better not aspire. If he is to get on in life, he must get on 'umbly, Master Copperfield!

A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, 'is he well-born?'

Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.

We all have a sense of level. It may not be based on class exactly anymore, but we still have a sense of what we're entitled to. People pick partners who are nearly their equal in looks. The pretty marry the pretty, the ugly the ugly. To the detriment of the breed.

England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly.

The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education.

Nobody wants to be called common people, especially common people.

I never take any notice to what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.

...if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.

Chuse none for thy servant who have served thy betters.

The whole strength of England lies in the fact that the enormous majority of the English people are snobs.

When aristocrats pretend they're common people -- they get common!

Sex is the great leveler, taste the great divider.

Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was.

He isn’t like us Low. You know that right.” I knew what Cage was saying. Marcus was out of my league. He didn’t want me thinking there could ever be anything between me and his roommate. I was low class. Marcus was a rich kid. “I’m not stupid Cage.