An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off: it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead. Nancy Mitford
Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.Thomas Jefferson
We are the only real aristocracy in the world: the aristocracy of money. George Bernard Shaw
Brave people add up to an aristocracy. The democracy of thou-shalt-not is bound to be a collection of weak men. D H Lawrence
Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. Alexis de Tocqueville
Aristocracy is always cruel. Wendell Phillips
There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a Democrat like myself must admit this. Theodore Roosevelt
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. G K Chesterton