“The history of man is the history of the continuous replacement of certain elites: as one ascends, another declines.”
Vilfredo Pareto
The Rise and Fall of Elites (Primary source)
Pareto’s central argument is that all societies are governed by a ruling elite—a minority that holds power and wealth—but that no elite endures indefinitely.
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“Except during short intervals of time, peoples are always governed by an elite. I use the word elite (It. aristrocrazia) in its etymological sense, meaning the strongest, the most energetic, and most capable—for good as well as evil. However, due to an important physiological law, elites do not last. Hence, the history of man is the history of the continuous replacement of certain elites: as one ascends, another declines. Such is the real phenomenon, though to us it may often appear under another form.”
Vilfredo Pareto
”History is a graveyard of aristocracies.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“The new elite which seeks to supersede the old one, or merely to share its power and honors, does not admit to such an intention frankly and openly.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“Assume that the new elite were clearly and simply to proclaim its intentions which are to supplant the old elite; no one would come to its assistance, it would be defeated before having fought a battle. On the contrary, it appears to be asking nothing for itself, well knowing that without asking anything in advance it will obtain what it wants as a consequence of its victory.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“When it is useful to them, men can believe a theory of which they know nothing more than its name.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary sourceMore quotes by Vilfredo Pareto →
“Good design is durable. It has nothing trendy about it that might be out of date tomorrow. This is one of the major differences between well-designed products and short-lived trivial objects for a throwaway society that can no longer be justified.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Men follow their sentiments and their self-interest, but it pleases them to imagine that they follow reason. And so they look for, and always find, some theory which, a posteriori, makes their actions appear to be logical. If that theory could be demolished scientifically, the only result would be that another theory would be substituted for the first one, and for the same purpose.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source