Snobbery Quotes

“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“What people value in their books—and thus what they count as literature—really tells you more about them than it does about the book.”
― Brent Weeks

“An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger. ”
― Dan Rather

“I do not mean to object to a thorough knowledge of the famous works we read. I object only to the interminable comments and bewildering criticisms that teach but one thing: there are as many opinions as there are men.”
― Helen Keller, The Story of My Life

“They [Harvard academia] liked the poor, but didn't like the smell of the poor.”
― Chris Hedges

“Nearly all bookish people are snobs, and especially the more enlightened among them. They are apt to assume that if a writer has immense circulation, if he is enjoyed by plain persons, and if he can fill several theatres at once, he cannont possibly be worth reading and merits only indifference and disdain.”
― Arnold Bennett

“People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"-both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct identities and comparable claims on existence. Such words are nevertheless an apt vehicle for conveying the disparate treatment accorded to different groups. Those without status are all but invisible: they are treated brusquely by others, their complexities trampled upon and their singularities ignored.”
― Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety

“I am no novel-reader—I seldom look into novels—Do not imagine that I often read novels—It is really very well for a novel.” Such is the common cant. “And what are you reading, Miss—?” “Oh! It is only a novel!” replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. “It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda”; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“We had enough quite enough snobbery in this world without exporting it to the hereafter.”
― Rick Riordan, The Throne of Fire

“I suppose there is no place in the world where snobbery is quite so ever-present or where it is cultivated in such refined and subtle forms as in an English public school. Here at least one cannot say that English ‘education’ fails to do its job. You forget your Latin and Greek within a few months of leaving school — I studied Greek for eight or ten years, and now, at thirty-three, I cannot even repeat the Greek alphabet — but your snobbishness, unless you persistently root it out like the bindweed it is, sticks by you till your grave.”
― George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

“The pure modernist is merely a snob; he cannot bear to be a month behind the fashion.”
― G.K. Chesterton, All Things Considered

“A pleasantly situated hotel close to the sea, and chalets by the water's edge where one breakfasted. Clientele well-to-do, and although I count myself no snob I cannot abide paper bags and orange peel. ("Not After Midnight")”
― Daphne du Maurier, Echoes from the Macabre: Selected Stories

“Kilmartin wrote a highly amusing and illuminating account of his experience as a Proust revisionist, which appeared in the first issue of Ben Sonnenberg's quarterly Grand Street in the autumn of 1981. The essay opened with a kind of encouragement: 'There used to be a story that discerning Frenchmen preferred to read Marcel Proust in English on the grounds that the prose of A la recherche du temps perdu was deeply un-French and heavily influenced by English writers such as Ruskin.' I cling to this even though Kilmartin thought it to be ridiculous Parisian snobbery; I shall never be able to read Proust in French, and one's opportunities for outfacing Gallic self-regard are relatively scarce.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

“Se me hace muy chistoso que el mesero, que se ve a leguas que es mexicano, sin embargo nos hable en inglés. Luego va y le pasa la orden obviamente en español a otro, también mexicano. Pero ambos, él y nosotros, seguimos la farsa y nos negamos a reconocernos. No sé ya quién esnobea a quién.”
― Guadalupe Loaeza, Compro, luego existo

“It's more important to be kind than important.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Thieves! Fire! Murder! Such a thing had not happened since he first came to the Mountain! His rage passed description - the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“Of course, he has no human money. But the High King of Elfhame refuses to pay with glamoured leaves, as though he were some common peasant. He hands over glamoured gold instead and walks out with his purchases, feeling smug.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Feelings of entitlement make people do horrible things, or, rather, they allow them to do horrible things without feeling the slightest inkling of guilt.”
― Tatiana Boncompagni, Hedge Fund Wives

“Culture contains everything. there would be no peaks without valleys, gentle slopes, and meadows, at lower altitudes. The genius of democracy is a love for everything, to offer everything, value everything, and let individual freedom express its preferences here as elsewhere...and the key word, where culture and art are concerned, is pleasure!”
― Laurence Cossé, A Novel Bookstore

“There is no blue collar, no white collar, just honor. And honor is defined by character not collar.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Elitism & Fundamentalism (The Sonnet)

Elitism and fundamentalism,
Are both the enemies of progress.
Exchanging one bad habit for another,
Is not true advancement but regress.
Fundamentalists used to fill the world,
With the poison of dirty division.
Today elitists poison the world,
By endorsing snobbery and narcissism.
Conscience, courage and compassion,
These are the three pillars of progress.
Without these all belief is delusion,
All glitter is but a sign of coldness.
Replace not fundamentalism with elitism.
Grow out of selfishness into collectivism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Ingan Impossible: Handbook of Hatebusting

“Do you know who I am (The Sonnet)

Oh, so many times have I heard,
Do you know who I am!
So today when I travel places,
I walk around as a total lamb!
There's an immense relief,
In not flashing my name.
Windbags make all the noise,
Beings with character stay inane.
Be an elephant, strong yet gentle,
You observe more by being a dumbbell.
Blow your top when it's really needed,
Otherwise, be good people among the people.
All roads lead to people, not to mythical Rome.
Names aloof from people have no living role.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Ingan Impossible: Handbook of Hatebusting

“I don’t want you to be the reason why he thinks the British are snobbish.”
― Kellyn Roth, At Her Fingertips

“Role of Arrogance

Arrogance has its purpose, but first you gotta learn how to use it, so that it's a force for good, rather than a primeval tendency of self-aggrandizing.

Let me tell you a story. I was traveling to deliver a talk. The driver friend picked me up at the airport and dropped me at a fancy hotel booked by the organizers. At the reception before me there was an elderly couple. From what I gathered, their daughter had booked a room for them, but they were having a little difficulty communicating it.

I could sense that the hotel people at the desk didn't take them seriously to begin with, probably because they weren't dressed fancy. I kept quiet.

Finally the elderly man and woman gave up. They lowered their heads in disappointment and turned around to walk out without checking in. And just as their backs were turned, I heard one of the receptionists make the remark, "village idiots!"

That's it - I lost my cool! In that situation, at that moment, I felt as if my own parents were being treated like that.

I held the elderly gentleman by the wrist, marched up to the desk, and spoke.

"You think you are so fancy, don't you - working at a fancy place in your fancy clothes and phony etiquette - so much so that you forgot to treat people like people!

You ridicule them because they don't speak English.

Well, in that case, I speak more languages than you can count - then how should I treat you - you pathetic little tribal jerks!

It's not enough to wear clean clothes, go home and wash your heart with some soap. Despite all that cologne, you stink!

You can manage a hotel, you can manage a business, but you don't manage people, you treat them like family."

I would've went on and on, but the elderly person stopped me. Don't know whether the people at the reception realized their mistake, but by the look on their face they sure did feel small.

A moment later with a tinge of remorse and utter humility in voice, the other receptionist spoke. She apologized to the couple in their native tongue and finally helped them check in, without any miscommunication or frustration.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament

“Till we stop being a bunch of poncy, pretentious pillock, each obnoxious advancement will cause nothing but havoc.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Amantes Assemble Sonnet 56

Don't look for someone you can talk sense with,
Find someone with whom you can talk nonsense.
Call it friendship, call it love, call it whatever,
Role of a companion isn't sensibility but acceptance.
That's why I walk around in shabby clothes,
That’s how I get to know about people's true nature.
Everybody likes to butter up those in suits,
Those who smile at the people with nothing,
are the ones with real substance of character.
If you wanna find out who your enemies are,
Walk fancy and wait for the butter to pour in.
If you wanna find out the humans amongst the leeches,
Walk like a vagabond with your shirt not tucked in.
Be cautious of those who applaud your accomplishment.
And never lose those who walk by you in hopelessness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Society that measures social justice by social media trend, is nothing but a bunch of hypocritical, bottom-licking ding-a-ling.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“It's often the way that people who take their work seriously laugh at stupid jokes; it's as if they are under-humoured and, as a consequence, suffer from premature laugh-ejaculation.”
― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

“Language pedantry is snobbery and snobbery is prejudice,” [Deborah] Cameron says. “And that IMHO, s nothing to be proud of.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

“Madame Chalamet, may I assist you?' The duke’s voice was politely detached, as if he was asking a poor relation to partner him at a dance held at an inferior establishment.”
― Byrd Nash, Delicious Death