bourgeoisie quotes

   The true aristocracyand the true proletariat of the world are both in understanding with tragedy. To them it is the fundamental principle of God, and the key, the minor key, to existence. They differ in this way from the bourgeoisie of all classes, who deny tragedy, who will not tolerate it, and to whom the word tragedy means in itself unpleasantness.

- Karen, Baroness pseudonym Isak Dinesen Blixen
  Out of  Africa, pt.5, ch.1.

The intellectual†is the fine nervous flower of the bourgeoisie.

- Louise Bogan
  'Some Notes on Popular and Unpopular Poetry'.

Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

- Luis Bun‹ u el
  Title of film.

On a voulu, a'   tort, faire de la bourgeoisie une classe. La bourgeoisie est tout simplement la portion contente  e du peuple. Le bourgeois, c'est l'homme qui a maintenant le temps de s'asseoir.Une chaise n'est pas une caste. Humboldt Wrongly, one wanted to make the bourgeoisie a class. The bourgeoisie is simply a contented section of the public. A bourgeois is a man who now has the time to sit down. A chair is not a caste.

-Victor Marie Hugo
  Les Mise  rables, vol.4, bk.1, ch.2.

The British Bourgeosie Is not born And does not die, But, if it is ill, It has a frightened look in its eyes.

- Sir (Francis) Osbert Sitwell
At the House of Mrs Kinfoot.

The bourgeoisie's weapon is starvation. If as a writer or artist you run counter to their narrow notions they simplyand silently withdraw your means of subsistence. I sometimes wonder how many people of talent are executed in this way every year.

- Robert Louis Stevenson
Quoted by Lloyd Osbourne in'The Death of Stevenson', preface toTusitala edition of Weir of Hermiston (published1924).

Civilization has made the peasantry its pack animal. The bourgeoisie in the long run onlychanged the form of the pack.

- Leon originally Lev Davidovich Bronstein Trotsky
  History of the Russian Revolution (translated by Max Eastman,1934), vol.3, pt.3.

For generations the British bourgeoisie have spoken of themselves as gentlemen, and by that they have meant, among other things, a self-respecting scorn of irregular perquisites. It is the quality that distinguishes the gentleman from both the artist and the aristocrat.

- Evelyn Arthur StJohn Waugh
  Decline and Fall, pt.1, ch.6.