Quotes from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Tony Horwitz ·  406 pages

Rating: (18K votes)


“There are people one knows and people one doesn't. One shouldn't cheapen the former by feigning intimacy with the latter.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“You asked how I'd define prejudice. That's it. Making assumptions about people you've never met.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“When Union litter-bearers climbed out of their trenches, four days after the assault, they found only two men still alive amongst the piles of stinking corpses. One burial party discovered a dead Yankee with a diary in his pocket, the last entry of which read: “June 3. Cold Harbor. I was killed.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“Everywhere, it seemed, I had to explore two pasts and two presents; one white, one black, separate and unreconcilable. The past had poisoned the present and the present, in turn, now poisoned remembrance of things past.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“Seven severely depressed prisoners were listed as having died of “nostalgia.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War



“I asked him if he thought “there” was better than “here.” “Not better,” he said. “I mean, my great-great-grandpap got his leg shot off. But I feel like it was bigger somehow.” Hawkins flipped through pages of Civil War pictures. “At work, I mix dyes and put them in a machine. I’m thirty-six and I’ve spent almost half my life in Dye House No. 1. I make eight dollars sixty-one cents an hour, which is okay, ’cept everyone says the plant will close and go to China.” He put the book back on the shelf. “I just feel like the South has been given a bum deal ever since that War.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“The scale of Monument Avenue also amplified the weirdness of the whole enterprise. After all, Davis and Lee and Jackson and Stuart weren't national heroes. In the view of many Americans, they were precisely the opposite; leaders of a rebellion against the nation - separatists at best, traitors at worst. None of those honored were native Richmonders. And their mission failed. They didn't call it the Lost Cause for nothing. I couldn't think of another city in the world that lined its streets with stone leviathans honoring failed rebels against the state.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“Like so much in Atlanta, Stone Mountain had become a bland and inoffensive consumable: the Confederacy as hood ornament. Not for the first time, though more deeply than ever before, I felt a twinge of affinity for the neo-Confederates I'd met in my travels. Better to remember Dixie and debate its philosophy than to have its largest shrine hijacked for Coca-Cola ads and MTV songs.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“Anything you got to do with your own kind in secret, something's wrong with it. You feel bad about it inside.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“The way I see it," King said, "your great-grandfather fought and died because he believed my great-grandfather should stay a slave. I'm supposed to feel all warm inside about that?”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War



“For Robert Lee Hodge, it was also a way of life. As the Marlon Brando of battlefield bloating, he was often hired for Civil War movies.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


“In principle, rememberance of the War could be a way to probe these scars, many of which trailed back to the 1860's. But reenactments did precisely the opposite, blandly reconciling North and South in s grand spectacle that glorified battlefield valor and the stoicism of civilians.”
― Tony Horwitz, quote from Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War


About the author

Tony Horwitz
Born place: Washington, DC, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Dad, who knew that Mother’s favorite poet was Browning and suspected where the Robert came from, nevertheless bunched the fingers of his right hand, kissed their tips, and threw his hand into the air. “Ah, Robert,” he intoned, “if I could but taste the nectar of thy lips.”
― Frank B. Gilbreth Jr., quote from Cheaper by the Dozen


“You are really…”
“Amazing? Awesome?” He paused, brows raised. “Astonishing?”
“I was going to go with bizarre.”
“Well, hell, if I had feelings that might actually hurt.”
― J. Lynn, quote from Wait for You


“Me? Beautiful? I'm plain as cardboard.

That may be how you see yourself, but the rest of the world would be hard to agree. You shine brighter than the Milky Way.
Now there are those who might try to take that from you, but you don't have to give it away. Keep on shining Pattyn.
And when the right young man comes along, he'll love you all the more for giftin' this sad planet with your light.”
― Ellen Hopkins, quote from Burned


“El día empieza a medianoche, en mitad de la oscuridad. Y luego todo es luz.”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem


“Miss Brodie was easily the equal of both sisters together, she was the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle and they were only the squares on the other two sides.”
― Muriel Spark, quote from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie


Interesting books

The Isle of Blood
(3.9K)
The Isle of Blood
by Rick Yancey
Bound
(6.4K)
Bound
by Lorelei James
The Father
(1.3K)
The Father
by August Strindberg
The Beautiful American
(2.1K)
The Beautiful Americ...
by Jeanne Mackin
Anissa's Redemption
(174)
Anissa's Redemption
by Zack Love
Nor Iron Bars a Cage
(2.2K)
Nor Iron Bars a Cage
by Kaje Harper

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.