Before, I forgot to show you the house with the most lineage, that of Don Luis. He is the hidalgo
. "No Stain",note no money at all. He's always waiting for a letter that never arrives. His ancestors must have forgot to write him.
. "No Stain",note no money at all. He's always waiting for a letter that never arrives. His ancestors must have forgot to write him.— The Narrator, Welcome Mr. Marshall!
"No man is blest in every single thing.
"One is of noble birth, but lacking means."
"One is of noble birth, but lacking means."
— A surviving fragment of Sthenoboea, quoted in The Frogs
There are not at Naples, however, four fortunes which reach five hundred thousand livres income, twenty which exceed two hundred thousand, nor more than fifty ranging between one hundred ard one hundred and fifty thousand. The ordinary income of the higher order is from five to ten thousand ducats. Amongst the common herd, however, the usual income is about one thousand crowns, sometimes less. I say nothing of debts. But the most curious fact is, that it is necessary to be previously informed that this difference of fortune exists, to be able to perceive it.
—Alexandre Dumas, Sketches of Naples
"I suppose most people would call me a failure and all my people failures now; except those who would say we never failed, because we never had to try. Anyhow, we're all poor enough now; I don't know whether you know that I've been teaching music. I dare say we deserved to go. I dare say we were useless. Some of us tried to be harmless."
— Elizabeth Seymour, The Tales of the Long Bow by G. K. Chesterton
As a family we are not rich except in honor, and, valuing this above all mundane possessions, I chose the profession of my father rather than a more profitable career.
—Tan Handron, John Carter of Mars
My mother came of a fine old family that had nothing but its bloodlines left to live on. Her parents were more than happy to accept my father's suit, with its generous bridal settlements. But it had been a happy marriage, old friends of the family told us girls. Our father had doted on his lovely young wife...and she had worshiped him.
She was proud, and if she had not been, her parents would have been proud for her. And there is little market for penniless bluebloods of no particular beauty — especially when the blueness of the blood is suspected to have been diluted by a questionable great-grandmother on the mother's side.
Colon: I thought the upper crust had pots of money.
Nobby: Well, I'm the crust on its uppers.
Nobby: Well, I'm the crust on its uppers.
Poor gentleman of good family! always cockering up his honour, dining miserably and in secret, and making a hypocrite of the toothpick with which he sallies out into the street after eating nothing to oblige him to use it! Poor fellow, I say, with his nervous honour, fancying they perceive a league off the patch on his shoe, the sweat-stains on his hat, the shabbiness of his cloak, and the hunger of his stomach!
I am not so great a prince as any of you; however, I am a king. I am Theodore, elected King of Corsica; I had the title of Majesty, and now I am scarcely treated as a gentleman. I have coined money, and now am not worth a farthing; I have had two secretaries of state, and now I have scarce a valet; I have seen myself on a throne, and I have seen myself upon straw in a common jail in London. I am afraid that I shall meet with the same treatment here though, like your majesties, I am come to see the Carnival at Venice.
—Count Theodore, Candide
Of this sort there are so many that the plentie maketh them cheap : so that you shall see dukes glad to serve a meane man for five or six rubbels or marks a year, and yet they will stand highly upon their bestchest or reputation of their honours.
—Giles Fletcher, the Elder, Of the Russe Common Wealth (1591)
At this very moment one meets in Russia descendants of Rurik and Guedimin following more than modest pursuits. In Petersburgh I have seen one conduct the orchestra of a cafe-concert ; in Italy I have met, on second- and third-rate stages, princesses singing under assumed names, and I was told there had been princes who drove cabs and princesses who took positions as lady's-maids. Such things account for the fact that several families issued from Rurik dropped their title.
—Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, The empire of the Tsars and the Russians
After the war, I won't just have a 500-year-old aristocratic name, but for the first time, some money to go with it.
—Colonel Klink believing that he is going have a fortune in oil, Hogan's Heroes
In old Transylvania, when I was a lad/Our castle was poor, but we were never sad.
—Count von Count, "Doing the Batty Bat"
...And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux!
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitney's
Lack baby clothes...
Anything goes!
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux!
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitney's
Lack baby clothes...
Anything goes!
"Upon meeting me, you might find that my appearance is quite dreadful and unkempt. I have been spat upon by priest, king, and merchant alike. I have no retainers, and possess nothing except a straight sword six hand spans (five and a half kret) long (this is the proper length). This is because I am Royalty and the undisputed master of the principal art of Cutting. I will fight naked with ten-thousand men."
— Meti's Sword Manual, Kill Six Billion Demons
