Quotes

Noblesse Oblige Quotes

The duty of nobility. The responsibility to give back to those less fortunate than oneself. 

Will include related quotes as well as quotes about leadership.

          1- Skyfire Avenue, Chapter 43-45

Aristocracy is different from the nouveau riche. It does not conflict with the spirit of civilians, and especially different from a lifestyle of leisure and self-aggrandizement. Instead, it is about cultivating a pioneering character based on courage, honor, self-discipline, and responsibility.

True nobles are possessed of an iron will, and a mighty strength of spirit. It's a sense of character that must be instilled from a young age.

There is a story about that decisive battle General Wellings had with Admiral Hu Na: At the time he was at the front, observing enemy positions while taking heavy artillery fire. His staff repeatedly urged him to withdraw but he refused. Seeing that he would not be swayed, they asked him for his last words in case he were to fall in battle. Without turning his head to regard them he said, 'Tell them my final words were like me, unbowed'.

Wealth is about things, but nobility is about the soul. A noble spirit means first and foremost that the individual has self-control. Restraint. They sacrifice themselves in service to the people.

Take for instance Prince William and Prince Harry, royals. Both were sent to military officer school for training, and after graduation Prince Harry went directly to the front lines to do battle. As an ordinary pilot. The royal house the risks of fighting on the front lines. But sacrifice, the assumption of risk for the people, is what makes a man truly noble.

A photo saw wide circulation. Commander in chief, a Field marshal Qi Mu, went to the trenches to survey the situation. He stood before the door of a ramshackle house, staring in at a woman as poor as a church mouse and ask her, 'Pardon me madam, would it be alright if I entered?' He was showing respect to the most vulnerable of society. Because a true noble knows that respect is not reserved for the rich.

1910, October 28th. An old man gave up all of his possessions to the poor in order to save his suffering spirit. He left his vast manor, dying as a vagabond in some tarin station. That man was Count lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, celebrated writer of Russia. Years later another famous writer called Stefan Zweig said of Tolstoy: 'This inglorious, menial death in no way diminished his greatness. If he did not bear the suffering of the people, then Lev Tolstoy would not be considered a human treasure, as he is today.

This... this is aristocracy!

Before the 18th century, nobles were still an integral part of society. They were important. Even today the older families protect and pass on their titles of nobility and grant them to subsequent generations. When the nobility became the common citizenry, the bourgeoisie didn't rise up, didn't rail against their culture. On the contrary, they sent their sons and daughters to finishing schools in the hopes of becoming aristocrats themselves. They brought titles, figures and insignias, anything they could to inherit the mantle of 'noble'. The reason why the noble institution has continued until today is because it has earned the approval of the people. Because the people believe that the noble spirit represents a certain honor... A certain dignity.

In the old days battles were all more or less the same; on the field they were enemies. Back home they were neighbors. Looking back on them now people see these fights like schoolyard scuffles.

Long ago a king died. Both his grandson Henry, and his sister's son Stephen thought they were entitled to the throne of England. Stephen has already been in the country when the king passed, so he was first to arrive. He rushed forth to claim the throne as his own. Henry, meanwhile, was on the mainland and upon hearing the news grew resentful. So, he raised an army of mercenaries to confront Stephen. But Henry was young, inexperienced, and he deployed his troops without the proper planning or strategy. His mercenary army arrived from afar to land on his native shores and disembarked to find that he had spent all of his money. Their food, too, was gone. What was he to do? It was then he came up with something a normal citizen couldn't; he wrote to his adversary Stephen begging for aid. I have embarked on an expedition, he claimed, but have failed to bring the proper provisions. I ask you to send financial assistance so that I might disperse the mercenaries and send them home. Surprisingly, Stephen acquiesced and sent his second cousin some funds. And in response, Henry later began a second bid for the throne.