If the non-noble wishes, he may make the same renunciations, but that bears no relation to this social position; it is an irrelevant private affair. But for the nobility, it is social duty to be forbidden many things; or more correctly it is the nobility's privilege.

XREF: Inverts ordinary thinking that renunciation = sacrifice; for nobility, prohibitions confer status. Echoes Veblen's conspicuous abstention and Thorstein Veblen reasoning about status marking.

DEFINE: Contrasts private renunciation (irrelevant personal affair) with noble renunciation (vested social duty/privilege), clarifying how social position transforms the meaning of the same act.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 496