Arthur Dimmesdale

"There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of thee."

"Be true! Be true! Be true!"

"Better to die than to live as I have lived!"

"Thou canst not take the token away. It is too deeply branded."

"O Hester, what a thought is that which thou hast awakened in me!"

"We are not, Hester, of the order that proclaims itself."

"Better never to have known a moment's peace than to feel the gnawing of an evil conscience."

"I cannot forgive myself for having lived thus long."

"Evil has been my nature; shall I not have cause to fear that evil will be my destiny?"

"Be true! Be true! Be true!"

"Shame, Despair, Solitude! Yet I am not the less a man."

"It may be that the torment of my daily existence is a fitting retribution."

"I am a coward in this matter."

"That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin."

"Pity me!—pity us both!"

"Better to die than to live and not to know."

"Be true! Be true! Be true!"

"Thou and I, Hester, never played our parts in the world's stage."

"And be the torture what it may, we have skilled each other all the while."

"Canst thou forgive me too? Wilt thou forgive?"

"I am transformed! I am not the man!"

"We are not, Hester, of the world's people."

"What we did had a consecration of its own."

"Physician, thou hast charge of my physical well-being."

"Sin is left alone."

"We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world."

"Thou and I, Hester,—what have we to do with all these iron men, and their opinions?"

"Of penance, I have had enough!"

"The infant at thy breast is also mine!"

"Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom!"