Daniel Defoe: Wealth Makes Lords
on Tuesday, December 28, 2021Daniel Defoe Money Quote saying wealth creates the lower classes into upper class by means of money. Daniel Defoe said:
“Wealth, howsoever got, in England makes lords of mechanics, gentlemen of rakes; Antiquity and birth are needless here; ‘Tis impudence and money makes a peer” — Daniel Defoe
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This quote by Daniel Defoe is commenting on social mobility in England through the accumulation of wealth. Defoe is saying that in England, wealth trumps hereditary status and lineage. Mechanics (skilled manual workers) and rakes (dissolute men) can become lords or gentlemen simply by acquiring wealth, no matter their background or family lineage.
Defoe is suggesting that in England, one can rise to the highest social class or even become a peer (member of the nobility) through boldness and money alone, rather than needing an ancient family name or birth into the aristocracy. So in essence, the quote means that in England at that time, wealth was the path to higher social standing and status rather than hereditary privilege or ancestry.