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By making social hierarchies and the reproduction of these hierarchies appear based upon the hierarchy of ‘gifts’, merits, or skill established and ratified by its sanctions, or, in a word, by converting social hierarchies into academic hierarchies, the educational system fulfils a function of legitimation which is more and more necessary to the perpetuation of the ‘social order’ as the evolution of the power relationship between classes tends more completely to exclude the imposition of a hierarchy based upon the crude and ruthless affirmation of the power relationship.

— Pierre Bourdieu Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1973)

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More quotes by Pierre Bourdieu

The mind is a metaphor of the world of objects which is itself but an endless circle of mutually reflecting metaphors.

Equisse d'une Théorie de la Pratique (1977)

Television enjoys a de facto monopoly on what goes into the heads of a significant part of the population and what they think.

I often say that sociology is a martial art, a means of self-defense. Basically, you use it to defend yourself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks.

The point of my work is to show that culture and education aren't simply hobbies or minor influences.

If the sociologist has a role, it is probably more to furnish weapons than to give lessons.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pierre Bourdieu (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.