complexion quotes

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter nosesthanourselves, isnot a pretty thing when you look into it too much.What redeems it is an idea only.

-Korzeniowski
  Heart of Darkness, pt.1 (first published in Blackwood's Magazine, collected inYouth:  A Narrative, and Two Other Stories, 1902).

Oh, is there not one maiden here Whose homely face and bad complexion Have caused all hopes to disappear Of ever winning man's affection?

- Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) Gilbert
  Frederic's song, The Pirates of Penzance, act1.

'Slavery's a thing thet depends on complexion, It's God's law thet fetters on black skins don't chafe; Ef brains wuz to settle it (horrid reflection!) Wich of our onnable body'd be safe?'

-James Russell Lowell
  'The Debate in the Sennit', in the Boston Courier, 3 May, collected in The Biglow Papers: First Series (1848), no. 5.

Wesit†and lookout attheboysintheir happy play†we kneel still with one little cheek wistfully pressed against the pane†and we go and stand before the glass.We see the complexion we were not to spoil, and the white frock† Then the curse begins to act upon us. It finishes its work when we are grown women, who no more look out wistfullyat a more healthy life; we are contented.We fit our sphere as a Chinese woman's foot fits her shoe, exactly, as though God made bothand yet he knows nothing of either.

-Iron
  Lyndall.The Story of an African Farm, ch.17,'Lyndall'.