Status Symbols Quotes

We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy,or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.

When a thing is bought not for its use but for its costliness, cheapness is no recommendation. As Sismondi remarks, the consequence of cheapening articles of vanity, is not that less is expended on such things, but that the buyers substitute for the cheapened article some other which is more costly, or a more elaborate quality of the same thing; and as the inferior quality answered the purpose of vanity equally well when it was equally expensive, a tax on the article is really paid by nobody: it is a creation of public revenue by which nobody loses.

Wealth, howsoever got, in England makes lords of mechanics, gentlemen of rakes; Antiquity and birth are needless here; 'Tis impudence and money makes a peer.

For my part, the thing I would wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. But what the typical modern man desires to get with it is more money, with a view to ostentation, splendour, and the outshining of those who have hitherto been his equals.

One notable feature is that English doesn't have much of a system for expressing relative social status.

When I was working at MTV, people would e-mail me asking where I bought my frames, and I always felt a little uneasy telling a teenager to go out and pick up a $400 pair of glasses.

Find your own style. Don't spend your savings trying to be someone else. You're not more important, smarter, or prettier because you wear a designer dress.

The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.

In corporate levels, it's all about tailoring your shirt and which tennis club you belong to and which watch you are wearing and what did you shoot last week?

College wasn't like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity.

in Virginia and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free, are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege.

[We are] persuaded to spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about.

In a consumer society, people wallow in things, fascinating, enjoyable things. If you define your value by the things you acquire and surround yourself with, being excluded is humiliating.

There's a very small percentage of people that take limos to school and have $2000 handbags - no one in my high school had that!

The vanity of loving fine clothes and new fashion, and placing value on ourselves by them is one of the most childish pieces of folly.

Jewelery isn't really my thing, but I've always got my eye on people's watches.

Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn; A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn: A Judge is just, a Chanc'llor juster still; A Gownman learn'd; a Bishop what you will; Wise if a minister; but if a King, More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything.

When I bought the Rolls Royce they thought it was leased, then I bought that new Ferrari hater rest in peace.

Fashion is capitalism's favourite child.

I'm very focused on the world and my career and my Porsche turbo and making money and Stevie B. Inc. I'm just living according to the standards of the world.

No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.

Culture and possessions, there is the bourgeoisie for you.

Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.

Each class of society has its own requirements; but it may be said that every class teaches the one immediately below it; and if the highest class be ignorant, uneducated, loving display, luxuriousness, and idle, the same spirit will prevail in humbler life.

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.