My 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.
More Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes
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Happiness 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 HAWTHORNE -
To the untrue man, the whole universe is false- it is impalpable- it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself is in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
A bodily disease which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Though we speak nonsense, God will pick out the meaning of it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
I have come to see the nonsense of attempting to describe fine scenery. There is no such possibility. If scenery could be adequately reproduced in words, there would have been no need of God’s making it in reality.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Happiness is like a butterfly.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, this it overflows upon the outward world.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
Sunlight is painting.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
There 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 HAWTHORNE -
Death should take me while I am in the mood.
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What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE