A womans chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nobody has any conscience about adding to the improbabilities of a marvelous tale. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove ones self a fool the truest heroism is to resist the doubt and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
A stale article, if you dip it in a good, warm, sunny smile, will go off better than a fresh one that youve scowled upon. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
It contributes greatly towards a mans moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing second, the gratification of ones family and friends and lastly, the solid cash. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Time flies over us, but leaves it shadow behind. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
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. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
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. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
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. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream it may be so the moment after death. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
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
Easy reading is damn hard writing. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
When scattered clouds are resting on the bosoms of hills, it seems as if one might climb into the heavenly region, earth being so intermixed with sky, and gradually transformed into it. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
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. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
