Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.

Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.

Ay, these look like the workmanship of heaven;
This is the porcelain clay of human kind,
And read more

Ay, these look like the workmanship of heaven;
This is the porcelain clay of human kind,
And therefore cast into these noble moulds.

A noble pair of brothers.
[Lat., Par nobile fratum.]

A noble pair of brothers.
[Lat., Par nobile fratum.]

Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.

Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

A noble soul alone can noble souls attract;
And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
[Ger., read more

A noble soul alone can noble souls attract;
And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
[Ger., Ein edler Mensch zieht edle Menschen an,
Und weiss sie fest zu halten, wie ihr thut.]

Fond man! though all the heroes of your line
Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine
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Fond man! though all the heroes of your line
Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine
In proud display; yet take this truth from me--
Virtue alone is true nobility!

I was no Marie Antoinette. I was not born to nobility, but I had a human right to nobility.

I was no Marie Antoinette. I was not born to nobility, but I had a human right to nobility.