Peter York Quotes

In L.A., like, there's a lot of, like, materialism, and, you know, people who think they're better than each other because of the clothes they wear or how they dress, and in Oakland, it's not like that.

I'm not posh or common, I'm in between.

In India, if you are from the elite, dogs are extremely important. The breed of the dog indicates your wealth, that you are westernized. The cook, another human being, is on a much lower level than your dog. You see this all the time.

There'll always be that prep in me that I can't seem to get rid of.

It is forbidden to the tolerated peoples living on Muslim territory to clothe themselves in the same manner as the chiefs, the scholars, and the nobles. They should not be allowed to clothe themselves in costly fabrics which have been cut in the modes which are forbidden to them, in order that they may not offend the sensibilities of poor Muslims and in order that their faith in their religion should not be shaken by this.

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.

I learned early that class is universally admired.

It is terribly important to do certain things, such as wear overembroidered dresses. After all, the mass follows class. Class never follows mass.

One of the most considerable advantages the great have over their inferiors is to have servants as good as themselves.

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

My wife thinks I have an obsession with social class. So I guess I have an obsession with social class. It probably stems from feeling like an outcast.

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

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

The bourgeois are other people.

Social distinctions concern themselves ultimately with whom you may and may not marry.

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!'

A Christian high school is just like any other high school in the sense of the politics and all of these levels of who's cool and what to wear.

If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.

I've got to be high class... Which is sad, because I like bars.

Clothes were terribly important in the '20s. They really were an arbiter of who you were and how much money you had: an indicator of social status.

A chair's function is not just to provide a place to sit; it is to provide a medium for self-expression. Chairs are about status, for example. Or signalling something about oneself. That's why the words chair, seat and bench have found themselves used to describe high status professions, from academia to Parliament to the law.

I don't believe in social equality, and they know it.

Class is more than money. Class is also about knowledge.

I don't understand all about New York society. It's only when they are in trouble that I'm really interested.