Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts uses the phrase disparagingly in his majority opinion concerning the government's assertion that it will selectively prosecute animal cruelty videos based on their own interpretation of The First Amendment in United States v. Stevens.
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In the first act of Johann Strauss, Jr.'s operetta Die Fledermaus, when Gabriel Eisenstein's wife, Rosalinde, shows confusion at his intention to wear dress evening clothes to prison, he exclaims, "Noblesse oblige!"
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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."
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In the 1972 movie The Ruling Class, Inspector Brockett concludes his investigation of the murder of Lady Claire at the Gurney Estate by announcing to his hosts: "You've shown me what 'noblesse oblige' really means." The line is delivered after he has arrested the butler based on his possession of communist writings.
Born in Damascus to philanthropic Jordanian Noblesse oblige, his father, an industrialist and a now retired-Senator for Jerash Governorate in northern Jordan, his mother is an English Literature teacher from the city of as-Salt.