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Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

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Famous Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

“That pit of blackness that lies beneath us, everywhere ... the firmest substance of human happiness is but a thin crust spread over it, with just reality enough to bear up the illusive stage-scenery amid which we tread. It needs no earthquake to open the chasm.”

NeedsHumansEnoughRealityHappinessLyingStageBearsSpreadSubstanceOver ItPitsEarthquakesSceneryBlacknessChasmsHuman Happiness
Book: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
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“This dull river has a deep religion of its own; so, let us trust, has the dullest human soul, though, perhaps, unconsciously.”

HumansSoulReligionRiversDullHuman Soul
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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“A human spirit may find no insufficiency of food fit for it, even in the Custom House.”

HumansMaySpiritHouseFitCustomsHuman SpiritInsufficiency
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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“The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressive also, of the long lapse of mortal life, and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within. Were these to be worthily recounted, they would form a narrative of no small interest and instruction, and possessing, moreover, a certain remarkable unity, which might almost seem the result of artistic arrangement.”

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

HumansHeartMayWholeEvilCircumstancesActivityHuman HeartLatent
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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“Why are poets so apt to choose their mates, not for any similarity of poetic endowment, but for qualities which might make the happiness of the rudest handicraftsman as well as that of the ideal craftsman of the spirit? Because, probably, at his highest elevation, the poet needs no human intercourse; but he finds it dreary to descend, and be a stranger.”

NeedsHumansWellsMightSpiritQualityPoetHighestIdealsStrangerPoeticMatesIntercourseSimilarityDrearyElevationEndowmentCraftsman
Book: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)
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“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.”

HumansPlayFeelingsHateProcessHuman NatureQuietHatredAngerOriginalsCreditSelfishnessInspirational LoveTransformedHostilityScarletIrritationHatred And Anger
Book:Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels: Scarlet Letter / House of Seven Gables / Blithedale Romance / Fanshawe / Marble Faun: Library of America #10
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“Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth.”

PeopleIfsHumansMayChildrenLongEarthNatureGenerationsHuman NatureRootsFortuneSeriesStrikesMy ChildrenSoilWornPotatoesWorn OutBirthplace
Author:Nathaniel Hawthorne
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“But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and, still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.”

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Author:Nathaniel Hawthorne
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“It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.”

HumansPlayHateMankindHuman NatureCreditSelfishnessHumankindScarletHatred And Anger
Book:Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels: Scarlet Letter / House of Seven Gables / Blithedale Romance / Fanshawe / Marble Faun: Library of America #10
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“Language,-human language,-after all is but little better than the croak and cackle of fowls, and other utterances of brute nature,-sometimes not so adequate.”

HumansLittlesSometimesLanguageAdequateBrutesUtteranceFowlHuman Language
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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