Unearned Benefits Quotes

All patronage is perilous to men of real ability and merit. It aids only those who lack other claims to support.

There's a big difference between being privileged and being spoilt. My parents always said, 'Spoilt means ruined, and you're not ruined, just incredibly fortunate.'

I'm a straight white man - I have options, and I'm not blocked on a consistent basis when I wake up in the morning because of my race, sex, and orientation.

I haven't had to struggle very much. I haven't paid my dues. I think I have been lucky.

I see kids and young adults walking the streets of L.A. with this enormous sense of entitlement, who seem to think that if they are basically good people and pay their bills, then the world will be good back to them. And I think life isn't always like that.

Privilege and complacency paralyze me with fear sometimes. But the less vulnerable we are because of privilege, the country we're born in, or the security we enjoy, the more vulnerable our souls are to apathy.

One would be lying if they say nepotism doesn't exist.

White people are so fragile, God bless 'em. 'Well, I didn't own slaves.' No you didn't. Nobody is asking you to take personal responsibility for this. But you're a beneficiary of a system that did. Just own that and move on.

We can take these things for granted, when we have everything on a plate.

When they [Trump voters] get a [government] benefit. they assume that God gave it to them, But most people don’t want to pay for someone else’s undeserved benefits.

People bring it up to me: 'Well, you're only in your spot because you can talk well.' Okay, first off, you could be right. But second, what - am I supposed to apologize for this? No.

Sometimes in life, things just fall in to my lap. I'm very blessed that way.

The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.

Grace is opposed to earning, but not to effort.

I've been around enough to realise that there are two things that once people have them, they don't want to give up, and it's extremely difficult to convince them to give up: one is privileges, and the other is subsidies.

The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer.

Practically everything I've been offered didn't require much beyond looking like me.

As it stands now, those of us who are lucky enough to be citizens by birth don't have to do much. Very little is asked of us.

As a white man who has had privileges that others could not depend on or take for granted, I've clearly had advantages over the course of my life.

When you don't come from struggle, gaining appreciation is a quality that's difficult to come by.

Beware of privilege. It stinks of rotten fish heads, many of which were lapping the shore beneath the jetties.

I am with a very successful man, and the crazy thing is people think that it makes my career easier.

You need to understand something, you drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty and opportunity that you did not dig. You eat lavishly from banquet tables prepared for you by your ancestors. You sit under the shade of trees that you did not plant or cultivate or care for. You have a choice in life, you can just sit back, getting fat, dumb, and happy, consuming all the blessings put before you, or it can metabolize inside of you, become fuel to get you into the fight, to make this democracy real, to make it true to its words that we can be a nation of liberty and justice for all.

If you're lucky enough to be raised in a rich family, good. But learn how to respect that luck. It's not a given, you know? It's not like, 'Well, it's normal'. No, it's not normal. It's lucky.

I was lucky by birth.