Dream strange things and make them look like truth.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEDream strange things and make them look like truth.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEMoonlight is sculpture.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEJust as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God’s care and pity for every separate need.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEOur Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEI find nothing so singular to life as that everything appears to lose its substance the instant one actually grapples with it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEWhat we need for our happiness is often close at hand, if we knew but how to seek for it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThere is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole of life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThe world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThere is great incongruity in this idea of monuments, since those to whom they are usually dedicated need no such recognition to embalm their memory; and any man who does, is not worthy of one.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEAll brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEMy fortune somewhat resembled that of a person who should entertain an idea of committing suicide, and, altogether beyond his hopes, meet with the good hap to be murdered.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEIf mankind were all intellect, they would be continually changing, so that one age would be entirely unlike another. The great conservative is the heart, which remains the same in all ages; so that commonplaces of a thousand years’ standing are as effective as ever.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNESelfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEHappiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEA pure hand needs no glove to cover it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThe calmer thought is not always the right thought, just as the distant view is not always the truest view.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE