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Quote by Tom Wolfe

“Thank God in heaven! What a relief! They could let their breaths out now. Miss Efficiency was a bigot. These days the thing about bigotry was, it was undignified. It was a sign of Low Rent origins, of inferior social status, of poor taste. So they were the superiors of their English baby nurse, after all. What a fucking relief.”

Quote by Tom Wolfe

Book:The Bonfire of the Vanities
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The Bonfire of the Vanities

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Author

Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe, an American author born on March 2, 1931, is renowned for his unique writing style and insightful observations of American society and culture. His works often focus on the changes in American society and culture, with a distinctive narrative approach and rich details that depict the diversity and complexity of American society. His notable works include 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' and 'The Right Stuff'. more

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“[...] we will leave this place, and go into other lodgings - you as the mistress; and I as the maid." "I should be found out, ma'am," interposed Louisa, trembling at the prospect before her. "I am not a lady." "And I am," said Magdalen bitterly. "Shall I tell you what a lady is? A lady is a woman who wears a silk gown, and has a sense of her own importance. I shall put the gown on your back, and the sense in your head.”

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“Let us have peace." But there was the black man looming like a dark ghost on the horizon. He was the child of force and greed, and the father of wealth and war. His labor was indispensable, and the loss of it would have cost many times the cost of the war. If the Negro has been silent, his very presence would have announced his plight. He was not silence. He was in usual evidence. He was writing petitions, making speeches, parading with returned soldiers, reciting his adventures as slave and freeman. Even dumb and still, he must be noticed. His poverty has to be relieved, and emancipation in his case had to mean poverty. If he had to work, he had to have land and tools. If his labor was in reality to be free labor, he had to have legal freedom and civil rights. His ignorance could only be removed by that very education which the law of the South had long denied him and the custom of the North had made exceedingly difficult. Thus civil status and legal freedom, food, clothes and tools, access to land and help to education, were the minimum demands of four million laborers, and these demands no man could ignore, Northerner or Southerner, Abolitionist or Copperhead, laborer or captain of industry. How did the nation face this paradox and dilemma?”

RaceClassRacismCivil WarReconstruction
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“Suddenly I caught sight of myself in a glass and saw what a figure of fun I looked. Hitherto I had always taken my appearance for granted; now I saw how inelegant it was, compared with theirs; and at the same time, for the first time, I was acutely aware of social inferiority. I felt utterly out of place among these smart rich people, and a misfit everywhere.”

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