70+ Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

It contributes greatly towards a man’s moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Ability Greatness Happiness Man Moral
The inward pleasure of imparting pleasure – that is the choicest of all.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Choice Happiness Pleasure
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

Existence Fake False Himself Light Man Shadow True Universe
Salt is white and pure – there is something holy in salt.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Divine Holy Pure Salt White
I 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 HAWTHORNE

Black Body Death Heart Myself Politics
If 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 HAWTHORNE

Change Greatness Intellectual Kind Man Stand
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Art Economics Friendship Religion Stranger
There is an alchemy of quiet malice by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Ordinary Poison Quiet Woman
Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Book Combination Evil Goodness Hands Innocence Power Stand Word
Though we speak nonsense, God will pick out the meaning of it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

God Meaning Talk Voice
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 HAWTHORNE

Commitment Entertainment Fortune Ideas Murder Person Suicide
What we need for our happiness is often close at hand, if we knew but how to seek for it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Gratitude Hands Happiness Need Philosophy Satisfaction Seek
The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Easy Happiness Limitation Man Sick World
Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Affection Care Death Expression Life Love Necessary Root Wisdom
The 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 HAWTHORNE

Cold Forget Man Memories Monument Oneself Sad
The heart of true womanhood knows where its own sphere is, and never seeks to stray beyond it!
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Beyond Eyes Heart Seek Woman
What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Fashion Happiness Love Rest
Accuracy is twin brother to honesty, and inaccuracy to dishonesty.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Accuracy Brother Honesty
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

Dreams Happiness Leadership Philosophy Possible Pursuit Wild Wisdom World
Echo is the voice of a reflection in a mirror.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Mirror One Liner Reflection Voice
Death should take me while I am in the mood.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Death Funny Mood Myself
Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Deep Fly One Liner Shadow Time
Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Frame Heart Intellectual Mad
If the truth were to be known, everyone would be wearing a scarlet letter of one form or another.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Appearance Letter Truth
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 HAWTHORNE

Atmosphere Book Page Reading See Shine Sun Writing
Articulate words are a harsh clamor and dissonance. When man arrives at his highest perfection, he will again be dumb.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Arrival Dumb Himself Man Perfection Word
A man’s bewilderment is the measure of his wisdom.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Man Measurement Wisdom

Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

Famous American novelists