Top 25 Quotes by Nathaniel Hawthorne of 298

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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

Honesty, Integrity, Writing

1847; quoted by propagandist and language maven William Safire, New York Times Magazine, 13 December 1998.

The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Positive, Law Of Attraction, Mind

No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Depression, Being Yourself, Men

1850 The Scarlet Letter, ch.20.

Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Release, Found

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Inspirational, Self Esteem, Greatness

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1868). “Passages from the American Note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne”, p.28

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Time, Shadow, Eternity

Nathaniel Hawthorne (2015). “The Marble Faun”, p.191, Booklassic

The present is burthened too much with the past.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Past, Too Much

1856 Entry for 27 Mar at the British Museum, collected in The English Notebooks (1870).

To do nothing is the way to be nothing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Way

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Would Be, Letters, Form

There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole of life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Heart, Evil, May

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.231, e-artnow

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Real, Eye, Fingers

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.1220, e-artnow

We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Literature, Forests, Happens

The Scarlet Letter ch. 22 (1850)

A man's bewilderment is the measure of his wisdom.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Men, Bewilderment

Nathaniel Hawthorne (2015). “Complete Novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Illustrated Edition): Fanshawe, The Scarlet Letter with its Adaptation, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun, The Dolliver Romance, Septimius Felton, Grimshawe's Secret and Biography”, p.461, e-artnow

The divine chemistry works in the subsoil.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Agriculture, Chemistry, Divine

Some illusions...are the shadows of great truths.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Shadow, Illusion

This above all: be true, be true, be true.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Healing, Being True

Death should take me while I am in the mood.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Death, Mood, Should

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1858). “The Blithedale romance: By Nathaniel Hawthorne”, p.39

Though we speak nonsense, God will pick out the meaning of it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Speak, Nonsense, Gods Will

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.225, e-artnow

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Powerful, Reading, Writing

We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dream, Sleep, Waking

Nathaniel Hawthorne (2005). “The Scarlet Letter”, p.124, Prestwick House Inc

The trees reflected in the river - they are unconscious of a spiritual world so near to them. So are we.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Spiritual, Rain, Garden

Nathaniel Hawthorne (2009). “The Business of Reflection: Hawthorne in His Notebooks”

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

Doe, Meals, Would Be

Nathaniel Hawthorne (2015). “The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Novels, Short Stories, Poems, Essays, Letters and Memoirs (Illustrated): The Scarlet Letter with its Adaptation, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, Tanglewood Tales, Birthmark, Ghost of Doctor Harris… (Including Biographies and Literary Criticism)”, p.4138, e-artnow