Life figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, "The Procession of Life"
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, The House of the Seven Gables
I want nothing to do with politicians. Their hearts wither away, and die out of their bodies. Their consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to some substance as black as that, and which will stretch as much.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The American Notebooks, 1840
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.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, "The Old Manse," Mosses from an Old Manse
I have not lived, but only dreamed about living.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, letter to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jun. 4, 1837
The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and, lastly, the solid cash.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, letter to Horatio Bridge, Mar. 15, 1851
Would Time but await the close of our favorite follies, we should all be young men, all of us, and until Doom's Day.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, "Wakefield," Twice Told Tales
A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats. You may strip off the outer ones without doing much mischief, perhaps none at all; but you keep taking off one after another, in expectation of coming to the inner nucleus, including the whole value of the matter. It proves, however, that there is no such nucleus, and that chastity is diffused through the whole series of coats, is lessened with the removal of each, and vanishes with the final one which you supposed would introduce you to the hidden pearl.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The English Notebooks, Mar. 16, 1854
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, The American Notebooks, 1848
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, The American Notebooks, 1836
London is like the grave in one respect -- any man can make himself at home there; and whenever a man finds himself homeless elsewhere, he had better either die or go to London.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Sketch of the Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Even if I imagine a scheme of vengeance, what could I do better for my object than to let thee live--than to give thee medicines against all harm and peril of life--so that this burning shame may still blaze upon thy bosom?
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Scarlet Letter
Of a bitter satirist -- of Swift, for instance -- it might be said that the person or thing on which his satire fell shriveled up as if the devil had spit on it.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The American Notebooks
So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the
thirst of his spirit.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Mosses from an Old Manse
What we call real estate -- the solid ground to build a house on -- is the broad foundation on which nearly all the guilt of this world rests. A man will commit almost any wrong -- he will heap an immense pile of wickedness, as hard as granite, and which will weigh as heavily upon his soul, to eternal ages -- only to build a great, gloomy, dark-chambered mansion, for himself to die in.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The House of the Seven Gables
The besom of reform hath swept him out of office, and a worthier successor wears his dignity and pockets his emoluments.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Scarlet Letter
I sometimes fancy ... that Rome ... will crowd everything else out of my heart.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Blithedale Romance
Never was there a dingier, uglier, less picturesque city than London ... it is really wonderful that so much brick and stone, for centuries together, should have been built up with so poor a result.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, English Notebooks
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