Thomas Chatterton Williams Quotes

You may be the most liberal, Liberal Englishman, and yet you cannot fail to see the categorical difference between the responsible and the irresponsible classes.

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

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

The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment.

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

Colour is not the issue in America; class is.

Class is real. It can't be faked.

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

I think you could ask 10 English people the same question about class and get a very different answer.

I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia.

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.

I never knew the lower classes had such white skins.

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.

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.

I've been with all walks of life... All people from all status.

I don't like class distinction, and there is far too much of that in England.

It was hugely helpful to me, being South African. I have never felt uncomfortable in posh society because I don't see what it is that I'm meant to be bowing the knee about.

People often think of America as a classless society, but, of course, that isn't true. Within immigrant communities, there's an enormous distinction of class, depending on who your parents are, and that kind of thing comes out really quick in things like marriage and interpersonal relationships.

Class is a big issue here. And some people get picked on more than others. I think we probably do. I mean, it doesn't help that we wear waistcoats and tweed the whole time. But there is a reverse snobbishness in England towards that sort of stuff. And I think that's one of the reasons we really enjoy America, 'cos we're classless.

Black America has always felt itself divided into two classes: the mucky-mucks and the folk.

As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.

When the idle poor become the idle rich, you'll never know just who is who, or which is which.

The middle class is so funny, it's the class I know best, and it's the class where you find the most pretension, so that's what makes the middle classes so funny.

I'm seen as a chronicler of the class system, which I don't think is unfair.