Carlos Ruiz Zafon Quotes

America thinks of itself as a meritocracy, so people have more respect for success and more contempt for failure.

The Tea Party people say they're angry about socialism, but maybe they're really angry about capitalism. If there's a sense of being looked down upon, it's that sense of failure that's built into a system that assures everyone they can make it to the top, but then reserves the top for only a tiny fraction of the strivers.

Government posts are for sale, preventing some poor people with abilities from serving in those positions.

I don't think the world works on merit.

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.'

This town was built on nepotism.

President Junior is the mascot of crony capitalism.

There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents;... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy.

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

Surrounded by the evidence of their success, the wealthy come to believe that they are fundamentally better than other Americans and that working people deserve their declining fortunes. They trumpet meritocracy while ensuring that their children enjoy crushing advantages from birth. They have unprecedented access to politicians and use it to push policies that swell their wealth while defunding institutions, such as public education, that sustain opportunities for less-fortunate Americans.

America is a meritocracy.

I think the debate around nepotism is futile because I am an outsider and I know that there is no compensation of talent.

But the truth is the meritocracy is a lie. Those born into wealth and privilege will always be able to game the system for their own benefit and their children's own benefit.

Success breeds inequality, and you don't want to choke off success.

The truth is, I feel sorry for the Old Etonians. Everybody should be judged on his or her own merits. Assuming that toffs are 'out of touch' is more modern and fashionable than assuming they have a 'natural fitness for government,' but it's no fairer.

Nepotism and outsiders are two sides of the same coin that is Bollywood. They both have to co-exist. Both have their share of struggles.

At the end of the day nepotism has been there it's always going to be there don't expect it to change.

Only cream and SOBs rise to the top.

The road to hell is paved with Ivy League degrees.

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

Everybody keeps saying that India's a poor country. Yes, we have poverty. But I blame the government of India, the political establishment, for their failure to educate and therefore their failure to control the poverty.

I love Romney. It is not his fault that he is the son of a successful governor and makes $20 million a year.

And if we don't have a test, what we may end up doing is going back to what this country has done before. We could use social class and we still do, but in the 50s, it was, do you have the right last name and are your parents in privileged positions?

I don't care for people who are given peerages who have paid for them. I think it happens, and I don't like that.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.