Roger Scruton Quotes

It is impossible for one class to appreciate the wrongs of another.

Class still matters in Britain today.

The feeling of being an underdog, not belonging, is very much me. You harbour a little feeling of resentment towards the 'upper dog'.

You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs except in England, of course.

A once-born man (a Sudra), who insults a twice-born man with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is of low origin. If he arrogantly teaches Brahmanas their duty, the king shall cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and into his ears

Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

In a superior civilization, as, for example, that of the Indo-Aryans, the being who is without a characteristic form or caste... would emerge as a pariah. In this respect America is a society of pariahs. There is a role for pariahs. It is to be subjected to beings whose form and internal laws are precisely defined. Instead the modern pariahs seek to become dominant themselves and to exercise their dominion over all the world.

… an army of Gatsbys wanting not to overturn the social order but only to belong to the upper crust.

'Munmun' happened because the human world's dizzying inequality - of wealth and of power - had begun to send me over the edge, and I had to write something to try to help myself understand it a little better.

I was born trash in a land where the people all believe themselves natural aristocrats.

No one really believes in equality who's on top.

At the moment we have a ruling class that has one law and the people the other.

The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.

I believe that Britain is becoming more class-conscious, and I quake at the very idea of Old Etonians ruling the world again.

If the rabble were lopped off at one end and the aristocrats at the other, all would be well with the country.

There is a process of social and of political differentiation going on in the real working class all the time.

In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of 'the Haves' over the human rights of 'the Have Nots' is inevitably called into serious question.

In poor countries, the rich and powerful crush the poor and powerless.

Sexism, like racism, goes with us into the next century. I see class warfare as overshadowing both.

It is, of course, the first recourse of every elitist to see social barbarism in others.

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.

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.

In 1750, 75 percent of people on the planet worked to support the top 25 percent.

Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them, or selectively lower it down to allow their friends, allies, and kin to scramble up. In other words: 'Who says meritocracy says oligarchy.'

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.