--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I am an aristocrat,\" Virginian John…" description: "\"“I am an aristocrat,\" Virginian John Randolph would explain decades after the American Revolution. \"I love liberty; I hate equality.”\" — Colin Woodard" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ab/colin-woodard-26326_america_i-am-an-aristocrat-virginian-john-randol_2672110.jpg" --- # I am an aristocrat," Virginian John Randolph would explain… ![“I am an aristocrat," Virginian John Randolph would explain decades after the American Revolution. "I love liberty; I hate equality.” quote by Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ab/colin-woodard-26326_america_i-am-an-aristocrat-virginian-john-randol_2672110.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ab/colin-woodard-26326_america_i-am-an-aristocrat-virginian-john-randol_2672110.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ab/colin-woodard-26326_america_i-am-an-aristocrat-virginian-john-randol_2672110.jpg) > ““I am an aristocrat," Virginian John Randolph would explain decades after the American Revolution. "I love liberty; I hate equality.”” [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. An aristocrat claims love of liberty yet despises equality. **In simple terms:** Liberty love, equality hatred. Key Takeaway Question contradictions in political beliefs. Themes politics class freedom Mood critical inquisitive Type political historical When to use this quote - political discourse - historical analysis - activism Key Concepts philosophy social theory Questions to Reflect On - Why reject equality? - What defines true liberty? A Different Perspective Equality can be seen as liberty. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [America](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america/) [American revolution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/american-revolution/) [Equality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/equality/) [Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom/) [Liberty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/liberty/) ## Related quotes > [I am an aristocrat. 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Michener The World Is My Home-A Memoir > [“Jo carried her love of liberty and hate of conventionalities to such and unlimited extent that she naturally found herself worsted in an argument.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louisa-may-alcott/jo-carried-her-love-of-liberty-and-hate-of-conventionalities-to-such/) [Louisa May Alcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louisa-may-alcott/) > [The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-two-main-ideas-that-run-through-all-of-my-writing-whether-it-be/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [I love liberty, I hate equality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-randolph-of-roanoke/i-love-liberty-i-hate-equality/) John Randolph of Roanoke > [The breath of an aristocrat is the death rattle of freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georg-b-chner/the-breath-of-an-aristocrat-is-the-death-rattle-of-freedom/) [Georg Buchner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georg-b-chner/) > [The aristocrat is the democrat ripe, and gone to seed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/the-aristocrat-is-the-democrat-ripe-and-gone-to-seed/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [I have alternately been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-rush/i-have-alternately-been-called-an-aristocrat-and-a-democrat-i-am/) [Benjamin Rush](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-rush/) > [I always use the same comparison: Ian McKellen isn't a wizard. I'm not a 19-year-old aristocrat from the 19th century. It's all made up.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicola-coughlan/i-always-use-the-same-comparison-ian-mckellen-isn-t-a-wizard-i-m-not/) [Nicola Coughlan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicola-coughlan/) > [“What is the distinguishing mark of an aristocrat?' she asked him suddenly. 'Reverence,' he replied.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-goudge/what-is-the-distinguishing-mark-of-an-aristocrat-she-asked-him/) [Elizabeth Goudge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-goudge/) > [Sometimes my biography is interpreted as the upbringing of a French aristocrat. It was very, very different. 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Of a teacher and a learner.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/every-marriage-tends-to-consist-of-an-aristocrat-and-a-peasant-of-a/) [John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/) > [Unlike the majority of the writers of his age, La Rochefoucauld was an aristocrat; and this fact gives a peculiar tone to his work.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lytton-strachey/unlike-the-majority-of-the-writers-of-his-age-la-rochefoucauld-was-an/) [Lytton Strachey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lytton-strachey/) > [“how inevitable it was that the aristocrat would refuse his final duty—which was to step aside and vanish into history.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-herbert/how-inevitable-it-was-that-the-aristocrat-would-refuse-his-final-duty/) [Frank Herbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-herbert/) > [“You can learn how to be an aristocrat by following a few rules in a very short book. There is nothing to it.” He…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heather-o-neill/you-can-learn-how-to-be-an-aristocrat-by-following-a-few-rules-in-a/) [Heather O'Neill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heather-o-neill/) ## More by Colin Woodard > [“The Midlanders—a great many of them German speaking—carried their pluralistic culture into the Heartland, a place long since identified with neighborliness, family-centered progress, practical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-woodard/the-midlanders-a-great-many-of-them-german-speaking-carried-their/) [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) > [“I am a free Prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-woodard/i-am-a-free-prince-and-i-have-as-much-authority-to-make-war-on-the/) [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) > [“The Inuit language has no difference between he or she, or between mankind and animal,” she adds. “They’re all equal.”5”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-woodard/the-inuit-language-has-no-difference-between-he-or-she-or-between/) [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) > [“fear can be the most powerful of weapons.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-woodard/fear-can-be-the-most-powerful-of-weapons/) [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) > [“As you travel north across Ohio,” Ohio State University dean Harlan Hatcher wrote in 1945, “you feel that you have been transported from Virginia…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-woodard/as-you-travel-north-across-ohio-ohio-state-university-dean-harlan/) [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) > [“Split by an increasingly militarized border, El Norte in some ways resembles Germany during the Cold War: two peoples with a common culture separated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-woodard/split-by-an-increasingly-militarized-border-el-norte-in-some-ways/) [Colin Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-woodard/) > [“It began in 1784, when people in the western territories of North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) became disgusted with Tidewater control. 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