The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française defines it thus:
# Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly. # (Figuratively) One must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position, and with the reputation that one has earned.
The Oxford English Dictionary says that the term "suggests noble ancestry constrains to honourable behavior; privilege entails to responsibility". Being a noble meant that one had responsibilities to lead, manage and so on. One was not to simply spend one's time in idle pursuits.
In ethical discussion, it is sometimes used to summarize a moral economy wherein privilege must be balanced by duty towards those who lack such privilege or who cannot perform such duty. Finally, it has been used recently primarily to refer to public responsibilities of the rich, famous and powerful, notably to provide good examples of behaviour or to exceed minimal standards of decency.
In "Le Lys dans la vallée", written in 1835 and published in 1836, Honoré de Balzac recommends certain standards of behaviour to a young man, concluding: "Everything I have just told you can be summarized by an old word: noblesse oblige!" His advice had included comments like "others will respect you for detesting people who have done detestable things," but nothing about generosity or benevolence. He later includes the exhortation that a noble person performs services for others not for gain or recognition, but simply because it was the right thing to do.
It was also recorded in an 1837 letter from F. A. Kemble: "To be sure, if noblesse oblige, royalty must do so still more".
The phrase is used as the motto for the National Honor Society, which cites its purpose is to convey "fulfilling their obligations through service to others."
William Faulkner uses the term many times in his novels and short stories, including the famous The Sound and the Fury and "A Rose for Emily".
"Indeed you can usually tell when the concepts of democracy and citizenship are weakening. There is an increase in the role of charity and in the worship of volunteerism. These represent the élite citizen's imitation of noblesse oblige; that is, of pretending to be aristocrats or oligarchs, as opposed to being citizens." —John Ralston Saul
In the Disney movie Mary Poppins, Mr. Banks sings a song titled "The Life I Lead" with the lyrics: "I treat my subjects | servants, children, wife | With a firm but gentle hand | Noblesse oblige!"
Noblesse oblige is the motto of Calasanctius College (Ireland) and Colvin Taluqdars' College (India). The final stanza of Colvin's College Song is "Forgetting not our motto to perform noble deeds; Of pursuing our aim and serve our nation's needs; Colvinians do your duty, be loyal, just and true; Our College and our country expect this of you."
In the first act of Johann Strauss, Jr.'s Operetta, "Die Fledermaus", When Gabriel Einstein's wife, Rosalinde, shows confusion at his intention to wear dress evening clothes to prison, he exclaims "Noblesse oblige!"
In the Robert A. Heinlein novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Dr. Johnson says, "Does your common man understand chivalry? Noblesse oblige? Aristocratic rules of conduct? Personal responsibility for the welfare of the state? One may as well search for fur on a frog." Heinlein also discusses the concept in Glory Road where Her Wisdom Star, Empress of Twenty Universes observes to her champion that "Noblesse oblige is an emotion felt only by the truly noble."
Category:Nobility Category:French words and phrases Category:Mottos
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Coordinates | 38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N |
---|---|
Name | Axel Rudi Pell |
Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
Origin | Germany |
Born | June 27, 1960 |
Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal |
Years active | 1984–present |
Label | SPV |
Associated acts | Crush 40, Hardline, Steeler |
Url | Official website |
Axel Rudi Pell's latest album is The Crest and was released on April 26' 2010 in North America and 23 April 2010 in Germany.
SPV Records released a live DVD on 25 February 2008, titled Live over Europe, which includes the full performance from the Rock Hard Festival in 2007, and comes with a bonus disc which includes live footage from Pell's own archive.
Category:German heavy metal guitarists Category:1960 births Category:Living people
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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