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If a man, sitting all alone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need never try to write romances.

— Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (1850)

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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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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.