This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
G. K. Chesterton, fully Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
Democracy | Government | Means | Wisdom | Government |
Synesius, aka Synesius of Cyrene NULL
Truth is the aristocracy of language.
Each honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own aristocracy based on excellence of performance.
Excellence | Excellence |
I find it hard to imagine why God would want creatures like us solely to serve him: it's not as though he's in need of domestic help or anything like that. It also seems unnervingly close in attitude to the people who for many centuries thought it was simply their role in life to work for the aristocracy and the upper classes. To take pride in one's lowly position and to see that as confirming meaning on one's life seems to me indicative of what Nietzsche called 'slave mortality': sanctifying what is in reality an unfortunate position so as to make that place seem much more desirable than it really is.
God | Life | Life | Meaning | Need | People | Position | Pride | Reality | Thought | Work | God | Thought |
The principal feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things — war and hunger and date rape — liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things.... It's a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don't have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal.
Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.
In an age where public health has never been better provided for, and medical men enjoy a respect formerly reserved for the aristocracy and the clergy, millions of people are unwell, or merely feel unwell, or are in dread lest at some future time they may become unwell.
Age | Better | Dread | Future | Health | Men | People | Public | Respect | Time | Respect |
Anthony Hope, fully Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins
Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn't matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.
Robert Bellarmine, fully Saint Robert Bellarmine
God has implanted a natural tendency to the monarchial form of government not only in the hearts of men but in practically all things.
Change | Democracy | Government | People | Reason | Government |
We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.
Government | Ideals | Men | Money | Nothing | Peace | War | Government |
There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.
Government | Ideals | Men | Money | Nothing | Peace | War | Government |
I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our Government to trial, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
Birth | Challenge | Defiance | Government | Hope | Strength | Government | Trial |
I know it will give great offence to the New England clergy, but the advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from them.
Birth | Challenge | Defiance | Example | Government | Hope | Warning | Government |
The Bank of the United States is one of the most deadly hostilities existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution. An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?
Fable | Government | Little | Principles | Government |
Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived have forced me to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.
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 provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy.
There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.