Noblesse oblige

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Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning "nobility obliges". It is the concept that nobility extends beyond mere entitlements and requires the person with such status to fulfill social responsibilities, particularly in leadership roles.

The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française defines it thus:

  1. Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.

The Oxford English Dictionary meanwhile says that the term "suggests noble ancestry constrains to honorable behavior; privilege entails to responsibility."

Meaning and variants



History and examples



In Le Lys dans la Vallée,1 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.2


The phrase is used as the motto for the National Honor Society,3 which cites its purpose is to convey "fulfilling their obligations through service to others."









Baroness Orczy's character The Scarlet Pimpernel often uses the phrase to describe his sense of duty to protect the nobility of France, especially when addressing the villainous Paul Chauvelin in the 1982 London Film Productions movie.

In the Lerner and Loewe musical, Camelot, the phrase is used (in a rather unique way) in the song "What do the simple folk do?": "When they're beset and besieged / The folk not noblessly obliged / However do they manage to shed their weary lot? / Oh, what do the simple folk do, we do not?"



In the Daria episode "Is It College Yet?", Daria fails to get into the same college as her boyfriend, Tom Sloane. He offers to have his parents (who are friends with the college's dean) to write a recommendation letter. She responds with "Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as noblesse oblige."

Noblesse Oblige is the club motto of Mayfield United Football Club on the northside of Cork City. The club was founded in 1971 by Ernest O'Mahony & Joe Kennedy.

The 1985 comedy Clue features a mantlepiece with the inscription "Nouveau Riche Oblige" as a play on the expression.

See also