Noblesse Oblige Quotes:

Noblesse oblige; or, superior advantages bind you to larger generosity.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2631, Delphi Classics

topic: Generosity, Advantage, Superiors, Noblesse Oblige

According to an old French motto, Noblesse oblige - one must live up to one's name. The Rothschilds' condition of life has imposed on them a second motto: Richesse oblige - one must live up to one's fortune.

- Guy de Rothschild

topic: Names, Wealth, Motto, Noblesse Oblige

It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.

- Seneca the Younger

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Inspirational, Men, Giving, Noblesse Oblige

Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us - by obligations, not by rights. Noblesse oblige. 'To live as one likes is plebeian; the noble man aspires to order and law.'

- Jose Ortega y Gasset

source: Jose Ortega Y Gasset (1960). “the Revolt of the Masses”

topic: Men, Rights, Noble Man, Plebeians, Noblesse Oblige

If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.

- Warren Buffett

topic: Life, Thinking, Helping Others, Others Helping You, Altruism

Man is by nature a pragmatic materialist, a mechanic, a lover of gadgets and gadgetry; and these are the qualities that characterize the "establishment" which regulates modern society: pragmatism, materialism, mechanization, and gadgetry. Woman, on the other hand, is a practical idealist, a humanitarian with a strong sense of noblesse oblige, an altruist rather than a capitalist.

- Elizabeth Gould Davis

source: "The First Sex". Book by Elizabeth Gould Davis. Chapter 22: "Woman in the Aquarian Age", 1971.

topic: Strong, Men, Hands, Mechanization, Pragmatic

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

- James Madison

topic: Lying, Angel, Men, Liberty And Justice, Limiting Government

There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.

- H. G. Wells

source: H. G. Wells (2016). “A Modern Utopia”, p.79, H. G. Wells

topic: Engineering, Bridges, Iron, Railway, Perfection And Imperfection