Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“There are few uglier traits of human nature than this tendency—which I now witnessed in men no worse than their neighbours—to grow cruel, merely because they possessed the power of inflicting harm.”

Quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Create image

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist known for his Gothic novels and romantic works. His writings often delve into themes of morality and sin, influenced by his family history and Puritan background. more

You May Also Like

“The differentiation between family men and monks has brought great harm to the world. Only a class of aristocracy is created. You are a family man, so you are the lower class, and we are monks, so we are the higher class. Is God different for a monk and a family man? Even if anybody leads a family life, is it his fault? Does the fault come upon that God who makes him so? So long as this tradition in the religious world continues, you are superior and I am inferior. No! Everybody is equal in the spiritual world.. There is no question of superiority or inferiority. And this is the true equality.”

GodSpiritualMonk
Author:Sri Jibankrishma or Diamond
Create image

“Nature to all things fixed the limits fit And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit. As on the land while here the ocean gains. In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains Thus in the soul while memory prevails, The solid power of understanding fails Where beams of warm imagination play, The memory's soft figures melt away One science only will one genius fit, So vast is art, so narrow human wit Not only bounded to peculiar arts, But oft in those confined to single parts Like kings, we lose the conquests gained before, By vain ambition still to make them more Each might his several province well command, Would all but stoop to what they understand.”

Human NatureLiterary Criticism
Book:An Essay on Criticism
Create image

“Really, the definition of what makes us “human” confuses me. Showing “humanity” is like this synonym for “treating others kindly” or “like you want to be treated” or whatever, when that isn’t really human at all. Whoever came up with that definition is a real scammer, and a real genius. More than anything else, humans have been terrible to each other throughout history, and this is still the way it works today and will continue to work. It’s how we’re wired. I have “human understanding”; that’s it.”

HumanityHistoryHuman NatureAlpha
Book:Alpha
Create image