David Crystal Quotes

In terms of the class structure that you see so much in European portraiture, I don't think one feels that in America in the 21st century. But we have these other kinds of social structures now, like celebrity, who establish new hierarchies.

For the Anglo-Saxons, food determined a person's position in society.

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

Class is real. It can't be faked.

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.

Humans have evolved to be exquisitely sensitive to changes in status.

Of course, in the United States, which at the time was a very young country, there were also class distinctions. They weren't as pronounced, but they quickly evolved as well.

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.

There are only two classes - first class and no class.

Class is more important than a game.

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

Any organized social group is always a stratified social body. There has not been and does not exist any permanent social group which is "flat" and in which all members are equal.

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

In the local state school I attended in England, I saw and heard far more awareness of where a person stood in the social hierarchy than I had ever heard stateside.

'High Cotton' is more conscious of class than 'Black Deutschland.'

I've always enjoyed studying the small clues that indicate a particular class level.

At dinner parties I sit below the salt now. There are a lot of interesting people there.

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

Class still matters in Britain today.

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

And understand: class differences will not save you.

Language does not make one an elite.

The biggest crime in England is to rise above your station. It's fine to be a pop star. 'Oh, it's great, lots of fun, aren't they sweet, these pop stars! But to think you have anything to say about how the world should work? What arrogance!'

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

English people are so trapped in this class paradigm.