A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world. Nathaniel Hawthorne More Quotes by Nathaniel Hawthorne More Quotes From Nathaniel Hawthorne Life figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession. Nathaniel Hawthorne processionfigureslife At almost every step in life we meet with young men from whom we anticipate wonderful things, but of whom, after careful inquiry, we never hear another word. Life certain chintzes, calicoes, and ginghams, they show finely on their first newness, but cannot stand the sun and rain, and assume a very sober aspect after washing day. Nathaniel Hawthorne inquiryrainmen Most people are so constituted that they can only be virtuous in a certain routine; an irregular course of life demoralizes them. Nathaniel Hawthorne routinevirtuepeople 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 citiesshould-havetogether Women are safer in perilous situations and emergencies than men, and might be still more so if they trusted themselves more confidingly to the chivalry of manhood. Nathaniel Hawthorne trustmightmen Keep the imagination sane--that is one of the truest conditions of communion with heaven. Nathaniel Hawthorne communionimaginationheaven This dull river has a deep religion of its own; so, let us trust, has the dullest human soul, though, perhaps, unconsciously. Nathaniel Hawthorne soulriversreligion There is something more awful in happiness than in sorrow--the latter being earthly and finite, the former composed of the substance and texture of eternity, so that spirits still embodied may well tremble at it. Nathaniel Hawthorne substancesorrowhappiness If we take the freedom to put a friend under our microscope, we thereby insulate him from many of his true relations, magnify his peculiarities, inevitably tear him into parts, and, of course, patch him very clumsily together again. What wonder, then, should we be frightened by the aspect of a monster. Nathaniel Hawthorne together-againfriendstears 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 evilheartmay A human spirit may find no insufficiency of food fit for it, even in the Custom House. Nathaniel Hawthorne spirithousemay Death possesses a good deal, of real estate, namely, the graveyard in every town. Nathaniel Hawthorne townsrealdeath If cities were built by the sound of music, then some edifices would appear to be constructed by grave, solemn tones,--others to have danced forth to light fantastic airs. Nathaniel Hawthorne lightcitiesair We go all wrong by too strenuous a resolution to go right. Nathaniel Hawthorne moderationresolution 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 mealswould-bedoe Or-but this more rarely happened-she would be convulsed with a rage of grief, and sob out her love for her mother, in broken words, and seem intent on proving that she had a heart, by breaking it. Nathaniel Hawthorne griefmotherlove Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-pern, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. Nathaniel Hawthorne weedflowerpigs The best of us being unfit to die, what an unexpressible absurdity to put the worst to death. Nathaniel Hawthorne absurdityworstprison In youth men are apt to write more wisely than they really know or feel; and the remainder of life may be not idly spent in realizing and convincing themselves of the wisdom which they uttered long ago. Nathaniel Hawthorne wisdomwritingmen Technologies of easy travel give us wings; they annihilate the toil and dust of pilgrimage; they spiritualize travel! Transition being so facile, what can be any man's inducement to tarry in one spot? Nathaniel Hawthorne technologymentravel
