#pretension

The middle class is so funny, it's the class I know best, and it's the class where you find the most pretension, so that's what makes the middle classes so funny. ↗

— J. K. Rowling

#class #classes #find #funny #i

The first, that their pretensions to this possession of an art properly so called in their art of speaking are entirely unfounded; and the second, that they are involved in a profound mistake in their confusion of the good with the pleasant. ↗

— Friedrich Schleiermacher

#called #confusion #entirely #first #good

She had thought of literature all these years (her seclusion, her rank, her sex must be her excuse) as something wild as the wind, hot as fire, swift as lightning; something errant, incalculable, abrupt, and behold, literature was an elderly gentleman in a grey suit talking about duchesses… Orlando then came to the conclusion (opening half-a-dozen books)…that it would be impolitic in the extreme to wrap a ten-pound note round the sugar tongs when Miss Christina Rossetti came to tea…next (here were half-a-dozen invitations to celebrate centenaries by dining) that literature since it all these dinners must be growing very corpulent; next (she was invited to a score of lectures on the Influence of this upon that; the Classical revival; the Romantic survival, and other titles of the same engaging kind) that literature since it listened to all these lectures must be growing very dry; next (here she attended a reception given by a peeress) that literature since it wore all those fur tippets must be growing very respectable; next (here she visited Carlyle’s sound-proof room at Chelsea) that genius since it needed all this coddling must be growing very delicate… ↗

— Virginia Woolf

#pretensions #respect

Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit. ↗

— Freda Adler

#chooses #crime #ethical #group #philosophical

We are in a position of financial and social power, and we could be agents of change in our society. Without pretension, I believe we could be a nice little gardener who takes care of the garden, and hopefully our neighbor will do the same. Then, maybe we'll achieve a better world. ↗

— Guy Laliberte

#agents #believe #better #better world #care

Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive. ↗

— Mary Douglas

#moral #pretensions #superiority

The television critic, whatever his pretensions, does not labour in the same vineyard as those he criticizes; his grapes are all sour. ↗

— Frederic Raphael

#criticizes #does #grapes #his #labour

The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man. ↗

— Frank Herbert

#myth #pretension #sardonic #experience

In every commercial state, notwithstanding any pretension to equal rights, the exaltation of a few must depress the many. ↗

— Adam Ferguson

#commercial #depress #equal #equal rights #every

Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike. ↗

— Margot Fonteyn

#any #art #induces #life #mediocrity