The book, if you would see anything in it, requires to be read in the clear, brown, twilight atmosphere in which it was written; if opened in the sunshine, it is apt to look exceedingly like a volume of blank pages.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThe book, if you would see anything in it, requires to be read in the clear, brown, twilight atmosphere in which it was written; if opened in the sunshine, it is apt to look exceedingly like a volume of blank pages.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEA 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 HAWTHORNEI want nothing to do with politicians. Their hearts wither away, and die out of their bodies. Their consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to some substance as black as that, and which will stretch as much.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEI 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 HAWTHORNEDream strange things and make them look like truth.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEShe had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThe marble keeps merely a cold and sad memory of a man who would else be forgotten. No man who needs a monument ever ought to have one.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThis above all: be true, be true, be true.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEEvery individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEWhat we need for our happiness is often close at hand, if we knew but how to seek for it.
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 HAWTHORNEWhat a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEA hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNELet men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart!
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 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 HAWTHORNE