“See! those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger, touching the sore place in your heart! Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the earth? Then recognize your Shame.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Shame
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“It is a good lesson–though it may often be a hard one–for a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the world’s dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of all significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Literature
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, those dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like this, when the mind has a passive sensibility, but no active strength; when the imagination is a mirror, imparting vividness to all ideas, without the power of selecting or controlling them; then pray that your griefs may slumber, and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Conscience
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Man’s own youth is the world’s youth; at least he feels as if it were, and imagines that the earth’s granite substance is something not yet hardened, and which he can mould into whatever shape he likes.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Youth
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“A woman’s chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: General
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Nobody has any conscience about adding to the improbabilities of a marvelous tale.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: General
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Selfishness
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“This world owes all its forward impulses to people ill at ease.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Progress
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Sunlight is painting.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Painting
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Moonlight is sculpture.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: General
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Life is made up of marble and mud.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Life
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Mankind are earthen jugs with spirits in them.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Humankind
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: General
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Generosity is the flower of justice.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Generosity
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
Favorite
“Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Friendship