But perhaps the New Yorkers of that day were unconsciously trying to atone for their culpable neglect of state and national politics, from which they had long disdainfully held aloof, by upholding the sternest principles of business probity, and inflicting the severest social penalties on whoever lapsed from them.

I’m reading Edith Wharton’s autobiography right now, and it’s filled with fantastic quotes like the one above, and my favorite, “I was always vaguely frightened by ugliness."