All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast. – Johann von Goethe

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. – G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg

Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority s, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third. – Vicomte De Chateaubriand