...I am ... one of the wretched and miserable daughters of the descendants of fallen Africa. Do you ask, why are you wretched and ...miserable? I reply, look at many of the most worthy and interesting of us doomed to spen our lives in gentlemen's kitchens. Look at our young men, smark, active and energetic, with souls filled with ambitious fire; if they can look forward, alas! what are their prospects? they can be nothing but the humblest laborers, on account of their dark complexions; hence many of them lose their ambition, and become worthless. Look at our middle-aged men, clad in their rusty plaids and coats; in winter, every cent they earn goes to buy their wood and pay their rents; their poor wives also toil beyond their strength, to help support their families. Look at our aged sires, whose heads are whitened with the frosts of seventy winters, with their old wood-saws on their backs. Alas, what keeps us so? Prejudice, ignorance, and poverty.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.... From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher;... tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a case like the present.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is no reason why parents who work hard at a job to support a family, who nurture children during the hours at home, and who ...have searched for and selected the best [daycare] arrangement possible for their children need to feel anxious and guilty. It almost seems as if our culture wants parents to experience these negative feelings.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Gradually I regained my usual composure. I reread Pale Fire more carefully. I liked it better when expecting less. And what was th...at? What was that dim distant music, those vestiges of color in the air? Here and there I discovered in it and especially, especially in the invaluable variants, echoes and spangles of my mind, a long ripplewake of my glory.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »