Although the nobility has always emphasized the principle, quod licet Jovi non licet bovi, the converse is implicit: quod licet bovi non licet Jovi. If it is the case that the sociological form of the nobility is built above all upon its sharp group insularity, which bears on the whole being of the personalities in it in such a way that all individual differences are merely symbols of an absolutely self-sufficient and whole mode of being, then the distinction from everything non-noble is encompassed by two rules: the nobility is permitted what others are not, and the nobility is forbidden what others are allowed.

DEFINE: The Latin maxim's inverse — that nobles are also forbidden what commoners are allowed — clarifies that noble identity rests on symmetric insularity, not just privilege.

DEFINE: Clarifies the reciprocal principle that elite status imposes distinctive restrictions, not just exemptions, that reinforce group insularity.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 497