Aristocracies Quotes

The greater part of the governments on earth may be termed monarchical aristocracies, or hereditary dominions independent of the people. - Ezra Stiles

It is true that the aristocracies seem to have abused their monopoly of legal knowledge; and at all events their exclusive possession of the law was a formidable impediment to the success of those popular movements which began to be universal in the western world. - Henry James Sumner Maine

It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. - W. H. Auden