Class Divide Quotes

“She turned and walked towards Krupp. She moved like smoke from the end of a cigarette in a still room, languorous, smooth. Her beauty stopped the conversation of the few people she walked past. Eyes of envy, lust, admiration, longing, followed her every move as she glided through the sumptuously furnished, dimly lit Champagne Bar. Krupp realised she was moving through the room deliberately towards him. He held his breath again as she approached him. His heart thumped against his lungs, making it hard to breathe out. Krupp sat up and he gulped when she saw him and looked straight into his eyes. He felt a tingle up his spine as she seemed to float, slowly, like a ghostly spirit between the tables. He wondered if she was real or a spectre. This could not possibly be Freya, he thought, and yet there was something …
She arrived at the table. She relaxed a knee. Their eyes met, a small smile on her lips. Krupp suddenly remembered his manners and stood, hauling himself up with the aid of his stick and the arm of the sofa. It could not have been an elegant move, he thought with annoyance. He should have remained seated.
“May I join you?” she said in perfect German.”
― Hugo Woolley, The Wasp Trap

“I hate my country. There are so many rich people who don't share their shit. They're like spoiled little ten-year-old bullies on the playground. They hog the monkey bars and the slide and the seesaw. And if you complain even a little bit, if you try to get just one spin on the merry-go-round, the bullies beat the shit out of you.”
― Sherman Alexie, Flight

“We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so. Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually accompanied by some impertinent attempt on the part of the sentimentalist to tyrannise over their private lives. Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table? They should be seated at the board, and are beginning to know it.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

“It's like we've been living in two different cities. You up here in all this marbled comfort, and me down there, killing myself in slow motion.”
― Garth Risk Hallberg, City on Fire

“The young ladies might behave like they were smooth and sealed as alabaster statues underneath their clothes, but then they would drop their soiled shifts on the bedchamber floor, to be whisked away and cleansed, and would thus reveal themselves to be the frail, leaking, forked bodily creatures that they really were. Perhaps that was why they spoke instructions at her from behind an embroidery hoop or over the top of a book: she had scrubbed away their sweat, their stains, their monthly blood; she knew they weren’t as rarefied as angels, and so they just couldn’t look her in the eye.”
― Jo Baker, Longbourn

“We treat politics as a sport, political parties as the teams we root for, and political leaders as our favorite sports stars.

But we forget that politics is not an entertainment sport. In sports, rivalry between fans of opposing teams is "Them vs Us", but in politics such rivalry becomes "Us vs Us". Political outcomes have far greater effect on our life than sports outcomes.

In a democracy, "we, the people" are supposed to be the kings, not the pawns. We are the examiners and watchdogs of the political system, not the fans.

We should step back from our blind loyalty to a party, and start taking an educated stand. Instead of forming our opinions based on hearsay and emotions, we should form our opinions based on hard facts.

The time has come to stop being loyal to any political party, and start being loyal to our country and its betterment.”
― Shon Mehta

“But in this case,” he continues, tracing the line of the plasterwork with one finger, “I feel that there is one cliché that sums up my position so admirably that it would be pure egotism to attempt a more interesting periphrasis. Plain speaking, therefore, there is to be.
“There is undoubtedly a strong possibility, notwithstanding the vagaries of contingency and misfortune, that my son might
have fallen—or might, we could say, have voluntarily jumped, in accordance with the ethical codes with which he has been brought up—for a play you have made with some success, although, as I am persuaded you would concede, very little originality.”
Plain speaking if you’re Henry James, perhaps.”
― Deborah Meyler, The Bookstore

“The lengths the Haves will go in order to deprive the Have Nots boggles the mind.”
― Stacey Lee, The Downstairs Girl

“Ghost Wail Square by Stewart Stafford

There's a place that canines shun,
In The Witching Hour stark,
Dogs wandering misty avenues,
Flee from Pandora's Park.

Nicknamed Ghost Wail Square,
Once whispered as Harlot's Row,
Twilight cobblestones flooded with blood,
Extinguished collusion's glow.

Blue bloodlust inflamed there,
In scented carriages and filthy lanes,
Carnivores at the butcher's block,
As they scattered ill-gotten gains.

At Devil's Hour, the horror peaks,
Death rattle knocks on doors,
As screams for mercy fill the air,
No rescue missions for whores.

A killer sheltered 'neath potent wings,
A skittish stranger to the noose,
Then sewn mouths shall speak,
As festering skeletons slip loose.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Bankruptcy favors the rich and shames the poor.”
― William Castano-Bedoya, We the Other People: The Beggars of the Mercury Lights

“He wished for her life to be filled with more opportunities than he had ever had. (Story: Behind the Grand Doors of Paradise)”
― Scarlet Ibis James, Scarlet Yearnings: Stories of Love and Desire

“Once, on a work trip, I’d been put up at Le Bristol, in Paris. As I walked around the suite I began to weep. The wallpaper had pink roses and the carpet and curtains had pink roses and the bed was a beautiful bosom you’d never want to leave. Gilt mirrors, a small marble-topped table, a pair of little Louis XIV chairs gathered in a place where you might want to read a poem. The stationery, the robe, the lotion—each of these things was thicker and more exquisite than I’d previously been aware existed. I began to panic—how would I live after this, now knowing?

And then I became angry. Not at the fundamental injustice of luxuries built for an elite minority, no, just that I was only staying for two nights. In the end it was fine. I savored each meal, I took pictures like a dumb tourist, and when the time came to leave I mutely accepted my return to civilian life.

I didn’t get to keep the paintings I saw at the Louvre, either.”
― Miranda July, All Fours

“There was no land to swim to. We tread water, working and working and working but the mouth kept expanding, always asking for more. It would take something ugly and violent and beautiful to tilt the world on its axis.”
― Hannah Deitch, Killer Potential