102 quotes
Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
Let us forget the other names of American statesmen, that have been stamped upon these hills, but still call the loftiest — WASHINGTON.
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.
The Marble Faun (1860)
Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Would Time but await the close of our favorite follies, we should all be young men, all of us, and until Doom's Day.
Wakefield (1835)
Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.
The American Notebooks (1835)
I have not lived, but only dreamed about living.
Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Nobody has any conscience about adding to the improbabilities of a marvelous tale.
The Marble Faun (1860)
Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.
The American Notebooks (1835)
Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
"Never, never!" whispered she. "What we did had a consecration of its own."
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
In truth there is no such thing in man's nature as a settled and full resolve either for good or evil, except at the very moment of execution.
Twice-Told Tales (1842)
What a sweet reverence is that, when a young man deems his mistress a little more than mortal, and almost chides himself for longing to bring her close to his heart.
The Marble Faun (1860)
What, in the name of common-sense, had I to do with any better society than I had always lived in?
The Blithedale Romance (1852)
I do detest all offices — all, at least, that are held on a political tenure.
The American Notebooks (1835)
The moment when a man's head drops off is seldom or never, I am inclined to think, precisely the most agreeable of his life.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; not that they gape so long and wide—but so quickly close again!
Wakefield (1835)