At bottom, to be colored means that one has been caught in some utterly unbelievable cosmic joke, a joke so hideous and in such ba...d taste that it defeats all categories and definitions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The vices of man, as full of horror as one might suppose them to be, contain the proof (if in nothing else but their infinitely ex...pandable nature) of his taste for the infinite; only, it is a taste that often takes a wrong turn.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Everyone has taste, yet it is more of a taboo subject than sex or money. The reason for this is simple: claims about your attitude...s to or achievements in the carnal and financial arenas can be disputed only by your lover and your financial advisers, whereas by making statements about your taste you expose body and soul to terrible scrutiny. Taste is a merciless betrayer of social and cultural attitudes. Thus, while anybody will tell you as much (and perhaps more than) you want to know about their triumphs in bed and at the bank, it is taste that gets people's nerves tingling.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of "style." But while style--deriving from... the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets--suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Women generally should be taught that the rough life men must needs lead, in order to be healthy, useful and manly men, would prec...lude the possibility of a great degree of physical perfection, especially in color. It is not a bad reflection to know that in all probability the human animal has endowments enough without aspiring to be the beauty of all creation as well as the ruler.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line--the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in A...sia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »