Elitism Quotes

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

“When red-headed people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn.”
― Mark Twain

“They're so cold, these scholars!
May lightning strike their food
so that their mouths learn how
to eat fire!”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“If one cannot learn from the mistakes of others, one might as well become a Democrat.”
― Esther M. Friesner, My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding

“An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger. ”
― Dan Rather

“I do not mean to object to a thorough knowledge of the famous works we read. I object only to the interminable comments and bewildering criticisms that teach but one thing: there are as many opinions as there are men.”
― Helen Keller, The Story of My Life

“There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than "politicians" think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas (and because it constantly produces them) that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.”
― Michel Foucault

“I love pop culture -- the Rolling Stones, the Doors, David Lynch, things like that.
That's why I said I don't like elitism.”
― Haruki Murakami

“Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending, above all else.”
― Glenn Greenwald

“She's on the stairs, ma'am, getting her breath,' said the young servant, who had not been long up from the country, where my mother had the excellent habit of getting all her servants. Often she had seen them born. That's the only way to get really good ones. And they're the rarest of luxuries.”
― Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume I - Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove

“The problem with call-in shows is quite simple, if you only dare to admit it: Democracy is best when not everyone can be heard all the time. If we are constantly reminded of all the stupid things that people say and think, it becomes rather difficult to remember the good and noble arguments for everyone to be able to participate and decide.”
― Johan Hakelius

“MAN: Mr. Chomsky, I’m wondering what specific qualifications you have to be able to speak all around the country about world affairs?
 
None whatsoever. I mean, the qualifications that I have to speak on world affairs are exactly the same ones Henry Kissinger has, and Walt Rostow has, or anybody in the Political Science Department, professional historians—none, none that you don’t have. The only difference is, I don’t pretend to have qualifications, nor do I pretend that qualifications are needed. I mean, if somebody were to ask me to give a talk on quantum physics, I’d refuse—because I don’t understand enough. But world affairs are trivial: there’s nothing in the social sciences or history or whatever that is beyond the intellectual capacities of an ordinary fifteen-year-old. You have to do a little work, you have to do some reading, you have to be able to think, but there’s nothing deep—if there are any theories around that require some special kind of training to understand, then they’ve been kept a carefully guarded secret.
In fact, I think the idea that you’re supposed to have special qualifications to talk about world affairs is just another scam—it’s kind of like Leninism [position that socialist revolution should be led by a “vanguard” party]: it’s just another technique for making the population feel that they don’t know anything, and they’d better just stay out of it and let us smart guys run it. In order to do that, what you pretend is that there’s some esoteric discipline, and you’ve got to have some letters after your name before you can say anything about it. The fact is, that’s a joke.
 
MAN: But don’t you also use that system too, because of your name-recognition and the fact that you’re a famous linguist? I mean, would I be invited to go somewhere and give talks?
 
You think I was invited here because people know me as a linguist? Okay, if that was the reason, then it was a bad mistake. But there are plenty of other linguists around, and they aren’t getting invited to places like this—so I don’t really think that can be the reason. I assumed that the reason is that these are topics that I’ve written a lot about, and I’ve spoken a lot about, and I’ve demonstrated a lot about, and I’ve gone to jail about, and so on and so forth—I assumed that’s the reason. If it’s not, well, then it’s a bad mistake. If anybody thinks that you should listen to me because I’m a professor at M.I.T., that’s nonsense. You should decide whether something makes sense by its content, not by the letters after the name of the person who says it. And the idea that you’re supposed to have special qualifications to talk about things that are common sense, that’s just another scam—it’s another way to try to marginalize people, and you shouldn’t fall for it.”
― Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

“I know where a lot of them [the elite or elitists] live.

Where's that?

Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there.”
― John McCain

“Never forget that it is we New Yorkers and New Englanders who have the monopoly of whatever oxygen there is in the American continent.”
― Van Wyck Brooks

“Peace was like any high. It couldn’t last. It was an illusion, something that could be interrupted in a moment and lost forever. Only two things kept you safe: money and power.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House

“The popular claim that “real socialism has never been tried” implies that all the Hispanic, Asian, Slavic, and African cultures that did attempted it were not up to the task. It is a form of racial slur that exposes the ethnocentric elitism at the core of Western collectivists.”
― A.E. Samaan

“This is the clandestine chess game that the high-level ruling class are playing my friends. Through their coordinated influence over key industries, governments, media outlets, education systems, and so on and so forth, they skillfully instigate mass panic and the collective perception of danger and chaos. This danger and chaos — whether it be personified through a charismatic dictator, terrorist organization, mystery virus, hostile weather change, or some other strategically inflated threat — is then weaponized to strip people of their introductory logic and rational thought; inculcate elaborate illusions that invert objective reality; weaponize the unconscious tribal mindset against the conscious thinking individual; suspend ordinary peacetime laws in favor of new authoritarian ones; and then present ‘solutions’ that serve to further consolidate Establishment power and reshape society as they see fit.”
― Gavin Nascimento, A History of Elitism, World Government & Population Control

“Cowardice is everywhere in this country, and that’s why corruption has continued to breed.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner

“I could couch my insecurity in the rhetoric of 'eat the rich', but I would rather analyse what it is of theirs that I both hate and want. The stability, the entitlement, the good seat to watch the world burn from?”
― Tilly Lawless, Nothing but My Body

“You may think these streets are yours to walk, but they belonged to someone else before: the queers, the hobos, the junkies, the trannies, the prozzies - those streets were theirs before they were yours so be careful, you may find you have to wipe your shoes clean before going into your nice apartment.”
― Tilly Lawless, Nothing but My Body

“—Qué suerte tengo —volvió a decir—. Qué mala suerte tienen los demás. La función de este lugar no es compartir el conocimiento, sino mantenerlo en manos de los ricos.
—De los más poderosos, querrás decir.
—Es lo mismo.”
― Rainbow Rowell, Carry On

“Each and every one of us can contribute because each and every one of us can promote Awareness. If not for yourself personally, since you may be exhausted and disappointed by this Earthly existence, and understandably so, then please find the courage for the future generations still to come. Contrary to what the Eugenics Establishment would have us believe, Humanity as personified through the innocence of the untainted child is profoundly beautiful; It is Elitism and its unending encroachments that characterize the true cancer that cripples our society.”
― Gavin Nascimento, A History of Elitism, World Government & Population Control

“Were the future leaders of the United States who had won coveted tickets to the highest echelons of the neoliberal meritocracy — the ones who were supposed to take over the newspapers, high political offices, and corporations — really demonstrating in the quads not about the military-industrial complex, wealth inequality, or America's endless foreign wars, but cosplay?”
― Dale Beran, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office

“Many of us worry today about a growing gap between the great mass of mere mortals and an internationalised and (metaphorically) incestuous elite, flitting between the luxury hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants of London, New York and Singapore or gathering for closed-door festivals of self-congratulation in the picture-book-perfect Alpine resort of Davos.”
― Ian Morris, Geography Is Destiny: Britain and the World: A 10,000-Year History

“It deeply saddens & disturbs me when I start to see poetry open mics only open to academics & students rather than a poetry mic that is open to the public, welcomes all & everyone, human beings, people of all ages to read their work. It smacks of a bizarre "primitive form of elitism" let alone it degrades the human spirit and sends the false message to kids that to be a professional writer or poet that you have to attend an over-priced college and have some sort of degree. That's like telling a punk rock musician that in order to join or form a band he needs a degree from Julliard. What completely ridiculous & arrogant nonsense.

POETRY is for EVERYONE.
As it should be.”
― R.M. Engelhardt, R A W POEMS R.M. ENGELHARDT

“Progressive women have grown accustomed to not only allowing the government to decide what is best for their children and their families, but they actively engage in protesting for more aspects of life to be overseen by elitist experts —many of whom do not even have children themselves.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner, Reclaiming Femininity: Saving Women's Traditions & Our Future

“Without divine faith, people are more likely to prop unworthy individuals up on pedestals and blindly follow their commands regardless of how absurd their demands are.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner, Reclaiming Femininity: Saving Women's Traditions & Our Future

“Anyone who wants to be in power doesn't deserve it and anyone who deserves it doesn't want it.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner