Alain de Botton Quotes

Our aristocracy, unlike that of Europe, is open to all comers.

If you try and level society, then nobody will do anything.

A meritocracy increases inequality --- by its very nature, it has to.

That the actual practice of meritocracy mostly involves a strenuous quest to avoid any kind of downward mobility, for oneself or for one's kids, is something every upper-class American understands deep in his or her highly educated bones.

America is a meritocracy.

Class still matters in Britain today.

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

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

They cannot divide us by saying that you're middle class or you're lower class.

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.'

If education does not create a need for the best in life, then we are stuck in an undemocratic, rigid caste society.

I don't like a class system. I don't like the idea of being in a different class than other people.

The whole of society is like a cabbage-stalk covered with caterpillars, and none is satisfied till it has crawled to the top.

There is no hierarchy of values any more. Real progress is due mainly to human genius, and that's rare, and usually stems from a real elite, from a hierarchy.

It has often been said, that there is but one rank of men in America… we have no artificial distinctions of men into noblemen and commoners among us, but it ought to be remarked, that superior degrees of industry and capacity, and above all, commerce, have introduced inequality of property among us, and these have introduced natural distinctions of rank in Pennsylvania, as certain and general as the artificial distinctions of men in Europe. This will ever be the case while commerce exists in this country.

On the battlefield, there is no distinction between upper and lower class.

In this country there is no rank but rank mutton.

The prime culprit in causing contemporary social inequality seems to be merit.

I am no leveller; I look upon an artificial equality as equally pernicious with a factitious aristocracy; both depressing the energies and checking the enterprise of a nation.

Distinction in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions.

Human beings are no longer born to their place in life

America is like a melting pot. The people at the bottom get burned, and the scum floats to the top.

However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through.

Brahmins cannot hope to claim a high and superior status forever. Times are changing. They have to come down.