“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
Manual of Political Economy (Primary source)
Manuale di economia politica, revised and expanded in French as Manuel d'économie politique (1909) and known in English as the Manual of Political Economy, is among the most important works in the history of economic thought.
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”History is a graveyard of aristocracies.”
— Vilfredo Pareto 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“The history of man is the history of the continuous replacement of certain elites: as one ascends, another declines.”
— 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 sourceMore quotes by Vilfredo Pareto →
“I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“Intelligence precedes force. Force itself is nothing without intelligence. In the heroic age the leader was the strongest man; with civilization he has become the most intelligent of the brave.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“No one comes back from the dead; no one has come into the world without weeping. No one asks when one wants to come in; no one asks when one wants to go out.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary sourceElites Aristocracies Politics Manipulation