"It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."

Class, Power, Inequality, Poverty, Ignorance

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"It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."

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"The middle class were invented to give the poor hope; the poor, to make the rich feel special; the rich, to humble the middle class."

Mokokoma Mokhonoana, South African Philosopher

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"Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes."

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"Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future."

Ayn Rand, Russian Writer

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"But I do not admit the comparison between your slaves and even the lowest class of European free labourers, for the former are allowed the exercise of no faculties but those which they enjoy in common with the brutes that perish."

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"I can't remember much about the early flights, except that it was ages before we got into First Class."

Phil Collins, English Musician

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"I was probably the first kid in my high school to go to Yale. I applied almost as a lark. Then, when I got there, I was the dumbest person in your class."

Maya Lin, American Architect

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"Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture."

Michael Caine, English Actor

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"The working class will not halt until socialism has been realized."

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"In those days I was terrible at athletics and never made a team, but quite easily led my class in academics."

William Standish Knowles, American Scientist

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"Starting out in a beginner class and really understanding the fundamentals of yoga is really important."

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Explore more quotes by George Orwell

"The idea really came to me the day I got my new false teeth."

Creativity

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-for ever."

Society

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Animals

"For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that could be given a name."

Psychology

"Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper."

Life

"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness," O'Brien had said to him. He knew what it meant, or thought he knew. The place where there is no darkness was the imagined future, which one would never see, but which, by foreknowledge, one could mystically share in."

Spiritual

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever."

Politics

"Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives but on balance life is suffering and only the very sound or the very foolish imagine otherwise."

Suffering

"We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing."

Future

"Sometimes they threaten you with something - something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, "Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to So-and-so." And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself, and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You WANT it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care is yourself."

Behavior