Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes & Sayings

evil is the nature of mankind. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

If the truth were to be known, everyone would be wearing a scarlet letter of one form or another. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature. — 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

Could they be other than the insidious whispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet only half his victim, that the outward guise of purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne's? Or, — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sleeping or waking, we hear not the airy footsteps of the strange things that almost happen. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Shall we never never get rid of this Past? ... It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The truth seems to be, however, that, when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates and lifemates. Some authors, indeed, do far more than this, and indulge themselves in such confidential depths of revelation as could fittingly be addressed, only and exclusively, to the one heart and mind of perfect sympathy; as if the printed book, thrown at large on the wide world, were certain to find out the divided segment of the writer's own nature, and complete his circle of existence by bringing him into communion with it. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

MAY AND NOVEMBER VI. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A screen ... the scenery and the figures of life were perfectly represented, but with that bewitching, yet indescribably difference, which always makes a picture, an image, or a shadow, so much more attractive than the original. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best-beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a black veil! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

You speak, my friend, with a strange earnestness, said old Roger Chillingworth, smiling at him. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

He himself, on the other hand, with characteristic humility, avowed his belief that if Providence should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his own unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth. With all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline, there could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The struggle, if it were one, need not be described. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Entire development would secure him a home only in the midst of civilization and refinement; the higher the state the — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester," said he, "hast thou found peace?" She smiled drearily, looking down upon her bosom. "Hast thou?" she asked. "None - nothing but despair!" he answered. "What else could I look for, being what I am, and leading such a life as mine? Were I an atheist - a man devoid of conscience - a wretch with coarse and brutal instincts - I might have found peace long ere now. Nay, I never should have lost it. But, as matters stand with my soul, whatever of good capacity there originally was in me, all of God's gifts that were the choicest have become the ministers of spiritual torment. Hester, I am most miserable!" "The people reverence thee," said Hester. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Great men need to be lifted upon the shoulders of the whole world, in order to conceive their great ideas or perform their great deeds. That is, there must be an atmosphere of greatness round about them. A hero cannot be a hero unless in an heroic world. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

In an ancient though not very populous settlement, in a retired corner of one of the New England states, arise the walls of a seminary of learning, which, for the convenience of a name, shall be entitled Harley College. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Salt is white and pure - there is something holy in salt. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The moral which presents itself to my reflections, as drawn from Hollingsworth's character and errors, is simply this, that, admitting what is called philanthropy, when adopted as a profession, to be often useful by its energetic impulse to society at large, it is perilous to the individual whose ruling passion, in one exclusive channel, it thus becomes. It — Nathaniel Hawthorne

I felt as if it were better, or not worse, to have compressed my enjoyments and sufferings into a few wild years, and then to rest myself in an early grave, than to have chosen the untroubled and ungladdened course of the crowd before me, whose days were all alike, and a long lifetime like each day. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

With the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no place so secret- no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,- save on this very scaffold! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Genius, indeed, melts many ages into one, and thus effects something permanent, yet still with a similarity of office to that of the more ephemeral writer. A work of genius is but the newspaper of a century, or perchance of a hundred centuries. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

If human love hath power to penetrate the veil
and hath it not?
then there are yet living here a few who have the blessedness of knowing that an angel loves them. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream — Nathaniel Hawthorne

We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

I had neglected to provide myself with books, and as we crept along at the dull rate of four miles per hour, I soon felt the foul fiend Ennui coming upon me — Nathaniel Hawthorne

What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

He was not ill-fitted to be the head and representative of a community which owed its origin and progress, and its present state of development, not to the impulses of youth, but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

It is a very genuine admiration, that with which persons too shy or too awkward to take a due part in the bustling world regard the real actors in life's stirring scenes; so genuine, in fact, that the former are usually fain to make it palatable to their self-love, by assuming that these active and forcible qualities are incompatible with others, which they chose to deem higher and more important. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bees are sometimes drowned in the honey which they collectso some writers are lost in their collected learning. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

What would a man do, if he were compelled to live always in the sultry heat of society, and could never bathe himself in cool solitude? — Nathaniel Hawthorne

All have some artificial badge which the world, and themselves among the first, learn to consider as a genuine characteristic. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

An infinite, inscrutable blackness has annihilated sight! Where is our universe? All crumbled away from us; and we, adrift in chaos, may hearken to the gusts of homeless wind, that go sighing and murmuring about in quest of what was once a world! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Would not the earth, quickened to an evil purpose by the sympathy of his eye, greet him with poisonous shrubs ... Would he not suddenly sink into the earth, leaving a barren and blasted spot, where, in due course of time, would be seen deadly nightshade, dogwood, henbane, and whatever else of vegetable wickedness the climate could produce, all flourishing with hideous luxuriance? — Nathaniel Hawthorne

How often is it the case that, when impossibilities have come to pass and dreams have condensed their misty substance into tangible realities, we find ourselves calm, and evenly coldly self-possessed, amid circumstances which it would have been a delirium of joy or agony to anticipate! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The influential classes, and those who take upon themselves to be leaders of the people, are fully liable to all the passionate error that has ever characterized the maddest mob. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Some illusions ... are the shadows of great truths. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Keep the imagination sane
that is one of the truest conditions of communion with heaven. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Laughter, when out of place, mistimed, or bursting forth from a disordered state of feeling, may be the most terrible modulation of the human voice. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and, still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ought a woman to disclose her frailties earlier than the wedding day? Few husbands, I assure you, make the discovery in such good season, and still fewer complain that these trifles are concealed too long. Well, what a strange man you are! Poh! you are joking. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A woman never overcomes these problems by any exercise of thought. They are not to be solved, or only in one way. If her heart chance to come uppermost, they vanish. Thus Hester Prynne, whose heart had lost its regular and healthy throb, wandered without a clue in the dark labyrinth of mind; now turned aside by an insurmountable precipice; now starting back from a deep chasm. There was wild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of man. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike. Times change, and people change; and if our hearts do not change as readily, so much the worse for us. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A forced smile is uglier than a frown. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Unfathomable to mere mortals is the lore of fiends. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form: the scarlet letter endowed with life! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

In the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and the revelry above may cause us to forget their existence ... — Nathaniel Hawthorne

These feelings, together with the deep degradation of his mind, made him resolve that no circumstances should again draw him into an axcess of wine. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

No, my little Pearl! Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pleasant is a rainy winter's day, within doors! The best study for such a day, or the best amusement,
call it which you will,
is a book ... — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The washing of dishes does seem to me the most absurd and unsatisfactory business that I ever undertook. If, when once washed, they would remain clean for ever and ever (which they ought in all reason to do, considering how much trouble it is), there would be less occasion to grumble; but no sooner is it done, than it requires to be done again. On the whole, I have come to the resolution not to use more than one dish at each meal. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

If it be a sign of mourning," replied Mr. Hooper, "I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Every crime destroys more Edens than our own — Nathaniel Hawthorne

What, in the name of common-sense, had I to do with any better society than I had always lived in? — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Would all, who cherish such wild wishes, but look around them, they would oftenest find their sphere of duty, of prosperity, and happiness, within those precincts, and in that station where Providence itself has cast their lot. Happy they who read the riddle without a weary world-search, or a lifetime spent in vain! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

On such a Sabbath morn, were we pure enough to be its medium, we should be conscious of the earth's natural worship ascending through our frames, on whatever spot of ground we stood. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A singular fact, that, when man is a brute, he is the most sensual and loathsome of all brutes. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

On Andrew Jackson: His native strength compelled every man to be his tool that came within his reach; and the more cunning the individual might be, it served only to make him a sharper tool. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Another phenomenon, still more strikingly modern, was a package of lucifer matches, which, in old times, would have been thought actually to borrow their instantaneous flame from the nether fires of Tophet. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

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

I wonder that we Americans love our country at all, it having no limits and no oneness; and when you try to make it a matter of the heart, everything falls away except one's native State; -neither can you seize hold of that, unless you tear it out of the Union, bleeding and quivering. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A high truth, indeed, fairly, finely, and skilfully wrought out, brightening at every step, and crowning the final development of a work of fiction, may add an artistic glory, but is never
any truer, and seldom any more evident, at the last page than at the first. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hence, too, might be drawn a weighty lesson from the little-regarded truth, that the act of the passing generation is the germ which may and must produce good or evil fruit in a far-distant time; that, together with the seed of the merely temporary crop, which mortals term expediency, they inevitably sow the acorns of a more enduring growth, which may darkly overshadow their posterity. The — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Peace be with all the world! My blessing on my friends! My forgiveness to my enemies! For I am in the realm of quiet! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Your fantastic anticipations make me discern all the more forcibly what a wretched, unsubstantial scheme is this, on which we have wasted a precious summer of our lives. Do you seriously imagine that any such realities as you, and many others here, have dreamed of, will ever be brought to pass? — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The door of the jail being flung open, the young woman stood fully revealed before the crowd. It seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom that she might conceal a certain token which was wrought or fastened to her dress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush and yet a haughty smile, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The witnesses of Hester Prynne's disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity. They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state, which would find only a theme for jest in an exhibition like the present. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. Here, there was the taint of of deepest sin in the most sacred of quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A vast deal of human sympathy runs along the electric line of needlework, stretching from the throne to the wicker chair of the humble seamstress. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Mountains are earth's undecaying monuments. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

It was no wonder that they thus questioned one another's actual and bodily existence, and even doubted of their own. So strangely did they meet in the dim wood that it was like the first encounter in the world beyond the grave of two spirits who had been intimately connected in their former life, but now stood coldly shuddering in mutual dread, as not yet familiar with their state, nor wonted to the companionship of disembodied beings. Each a ghost, and awe-stricken at the other ghost. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Be it sin or no, I hate the man! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The best of us being unfit to die, what an unexpressible absurdity to put the worst to death. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering at it. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Why dost thou smile so at me?" inquired Hester, troubled at the expression of his eyes. "Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?"
"Not thy soul," he answered, with another smile. "No, not thine! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or
and the outward semblance is the same
crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more. The latter is perhaps the truest theory. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

It is very queer, but not the less true, that people are generally quite as vain, or even more so, of their deficiencies than of their available gifts. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

I never, till now, had a friend who could give me repose; all have disturbed me, and, whether for pleasure or pain, it was still disturbance. But peace overflows from your heart into mine. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Families are always rising and falling in America. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Happiness is like a butterfly ... — Nathaniel Hawthorne

A stale article, if you did it in a good, warm, sunny smile will go off better than a fresh one that you've scowled upon. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

O exquisite relief! She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom! By — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Thou,
dost thou pray?" cried Giovanni, still with the same fiendish scorn. "Thy very prayers, as they come from thy lips, taint the atmosphere with death. Yes, yes; let us pray! Let us to church and dip our fingers in the holy water at the portal! They that come after us will perish as by a pestilence! Let us sign crosses in the air! It will be scattering curses abroad in the likeness of holy symbols! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

What a terrible thing it is to try to let off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world! — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nothing is more unaccountable than the spell that often lurks in a spoken word. A thought may be present to the mind, and two minds conscious of the same thought, but as long as it remains unspoken their familiar talk flows quietly over the hidden idea. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit. — Nathaniel Hawthorne