Quotes from Nathaniel Hawthorne

It must suffice, that, though my form be absent, my inner man goes constantly to church, while many, whose bodily presence fills the accustomed seats, have left their souls at home.

They stopped on the bridge to look into the swift eddying flow of the yellow Tiber, a mud puddle in strenuous motion;

When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived. When, however, it forms its judgment, as it usually does, on the intuitions of its great and warm heart, the conclusions thus attained are often so profound and so unerring, as to possess the character of truth supernaturally revealed.

It is but for a moment, comparatively, that anything looks strange or startling, — a truth that has the bitter and the sweet in it.

and yet the intimation of a view of her character opposite to his own, gave instantaneous distinctness to a thousand dim suspicions, which now grinned at him like so many demons.

O, what a joy for a shy man to feel himself so solitary, that he may lift his voice to its highest pitch without hazard of a listener!

He was too calm and cool an observer. Phoebe felt his eye, often; his heart, seldom or never.

But, to tell you my private mind, Signor Giovanni, he should receive little credit for such instances of success - they being probably the work of chance - but should be held strictly accountable for his failures, which may justly be considered his own work.

no better occupation than to look down into the garden.

There is no good on earth; and sun is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given.

Intellectual activity is incompatible with any large amount of bodily exercise.

Young Goodman Brown came forth, at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grand-children, a goodly procession, besides neighbors, not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for his dying hour was gloom.

I love to watch how the day, tired as it is, lags away reluctantly, and hates to be called yesterday so soon.

It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.

Thus Ethan Brand become a fiend. He began to be so from the moment that his moral nature had ceased to keep the pace of improvement with his intellect. And now, as his highest effort and inevitable development -- as the bright and gorgeous flower, and rich, delicious fruit of his life's labor -- had had produced the Unpardonable Sin!

there is no one thing which men so rarely do, whatever the provocation or inducement, as to bequeath patrimonial property away from their own blood.

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.

Thus Ethan Brand become a fiend. He began to be so from the moment that his moral nature had ceased to keep the pace of improvement with his intellect. And now, as his highest effort and inevitable development -- as the bright and gorgeous flower, and rich, delicious fruit of his life's labor -- he had produced the Unpardonable Sin!

Air that had not been breathed once and again! air that had not been spoken into words of falsehood, formality, and error, like all the air of the dusky city!

These names of gentleman and lady had a meaning, in the past history of the world, and conferred privileges, desirable, or otherwise, on those entitled to bear them. In the present—and still more in the future condition of society—they imply, not privilege, but restriction.

Whatever else I may repent of, therefore, let it be reckoned neither among my sins nor follies that I once had faith and force enough to form generous hopes of the world's destiny—yes!—and to do what in me lay for their accomplishment;

Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire.

the voices, talking so strangely in the empty air, passed on through the forest, where no church had ever been gathered or solitary Christian prayed.

This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another, which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance.