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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.

— Nathaniel Hawthorne Twice-Told Tales (1842)

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More quotes by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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)

All Nathaniel Hawthorne quotes →

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

Sanu Sharma

You can never plan the future by the past.

Edmund Burke A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Nathaniel Hawthorne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.