I quite sympathize with the rage of the English democracy against what they call the vices of the upper orders. The masses feel that drunkenness, stupidity, and immorality should be their own special property, and that if any one of us makes an ass of himself, he is poaching on their preserves.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Lord Henry is a snob and suggests that drunkenness, stupidity and immorality are the preserve of the lower classes. When the upper classes appropriate their vices, he says – tongue in cheek – that he can understand their rage.