Arthur Dimmesdale

"Better to die once, than to live in this anguish forever."

"Thy Creator made thee capable of better things than thou canst presently conceive."

"My heart was frozen!"

"Believe me, Hester, there are none in this world whom I have inward respect for as I have for thee."

"Distrust thyself! I had almost said, 'Despair thyself!'"

"It may be that there are other tortures in this unquiet world of ours. None has been so grievous as I have undergone."

"Better to die than to live!"

"I, whose daily existence is a lie."

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

"O Hester Prynne, thou little knowest all the horror of his look!"

"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred"

"But, once in my life, I had been happy!"

"Never! It never can be!"

"Happiness hath not been our portion in this world"

"Do I feel joy again? asked he within himself"

"Of penance, I have had enough! Of penitence, too much!"

"I speak with the voice of one doom-smitten."

"Art thou that woman? Art thou the one whom this scarlet letter binds?"

"Man's most sacred trust should be the guardianship of woman's honor!"

"Be true! Be true! Be true!"

"I am not capable of the virtue that would atone for such a sin."

"Shall we not spend our lives together?"

"My old faith comes back to me."

"Thou art cruel!"

"Shall we not steal away—into the sunshine, and bear thine and my child together?"

"I am a coward and a craven! I will not uphold thee!"

"I am not, Hester, the man whom thy dearest thoughts have imagined."

"Better to die than to live as the priest has lived."

"Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred."

"Forgive me, and I shall rejoice!"