Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes - Page 2

There is so much wretchedness in the world, that we may safely take the word of any mortal professing to need our assistance; and, even should we be deceived, still the good to ourselves resulting from a kind act is worth more than the trifle by which we purchase it.

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.

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.

Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.

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

Christian faith is a grand cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory, nor can possibly imagine any; standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable splendors.

What we need for our happiness is often close at hand, if we knew but how to seek for it.

Happiness is like a butterfly - the more you chase, the more subtle, but if you stop moving and quietly wait for it to land on you.

Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.

She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.

Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.

And there I sat, long long ago, waiting for the world to know me.

The inward pleasure of imparting pleasure - that is the choicest of all.

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.

Just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God's care and pity for every separate need.

We go all wrong by too strenuous a resolution to go right.

Echo is the voice of a reflection in a mirror.

Generosity is the flower of justice.

Dream strange things and make them look like truth.

All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests.

Nobody will use other people's experience, nor have any of his own till it is too late to use it.

Honesty and wisdom are such a delightful pastime, at another person's expense!

Sunlight is painting.

What is the voice of song when the world lacks the ear of taste?

Accuracy is twin brother to honesty, and inaccuracy to dishonesty.