John Dewey Quotes

Language does not make one an elite.

There seems to be an idea abroad in this land as well as in others, that a certain class of people are for the purpose of producing servants for another class of people, and that this servant-producing class has no right to give their children an education that is calculated to elevate them above the position of their parents. We are not in sympathy with this idea.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

I was very much a product of the public-school system. There was only one other kid in my class who had parents not involved in the stock market or law.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

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

May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?

England is so defined, the class system, your education. I think what was unique about the Canterbury scene.

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

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!'

The current leadership of the Labor party react to the idea that working-class students might study the subjects they studied with the same horror that the Earl of Grantham showed when a chauffeur wanted to marry his daughter.

Is class snobbery a social reality in the United States? Absolutely, and the kind that's codified by meritocracy is probably more toxic than the old-fashioned kind based on bloodlines.

The aristocracy in the future is not one of wealth or university education, but the aristocracy of the men who have done something for themselves and their fellow men.

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

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

Everyone has class, one class or another.

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

What have I got? No looks, no money, no education. Just talent.

I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education.

Every society naturally divides itself into classes. The author of nature has bestowed on some greater capacities than on others--birth, education, talents and wealth, create distinctions among men as visible and of as much influence as titles, stars and garters. In every society, men of this class will command a superior degree of respect--and if the government is so constituted as to admit but few to exercise the powers of it, it will, according to the natural course of things, be in their hands.

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

There is no distinction of persons among them, and deference is shown to merit rather than to noble blood.

I'm not interested in classes ... Far be it from me to foster inferiority complexes among the workers by trying to make them think they belong to some special class.

The people who give themselves up to manual labor are never promoted to public offices.

Marriage shall not take place between a patrician and a plebeian.