Nathaniel Hawthorne

"It may be that a man's heart has only a limited quantity of passion to expend."

"Much of the ugliness of the world is due to the fact that people do not know how to sit down."

"Intellectual development should commence at birth and cease only at death."

"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."

"A child's nature is like a mirror, reflecting the moral state of those around it."

"The greatest promise of improvement lies in the disposition of hearts."

"Companionship with solitude is better than solitude alone."

"Nothing is a greater impediment to progress than holding too tightly to what is familiar."

"A man who speaks the truth is always at ease."

"Happy are we whose earliest recollections have mingled the odours of the sea with our home affections."

"The mind and heart grow by what they feed upon."

"Happiness is like a butterfly which appears and alights on our hand and we stretch to clutch it, but it flies away."

"There is evil in every human heart that may be brought out under proper circumstances."

"The most ordinary men can accomplish extraordinary things if they are inspired."

"We sometimes conceive an admiration for a friend whom we have never seen."

"A kind and gentle heart is an inestimable treasure."

"Do not seek so anxiously to awaken love where it will come only through sorrow."

"The conscience of mankind grows stronger through the ages."

"Fear is a thing of instinct; courage is a thing of choice."

"Life is full of ironies which we do not discern at the moment of living them."

"Thou and I are but the instruments of Providence."

"The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopian plans they might establish, no less than the mightiest empire must provide a multitude of wholesome restraints."

"Our Creator has made us incapable of being satisfied with ignorance."

"Small circles of women and men gathered in the drawing rooms of those who wish to advance truth."

"He who seeks knowledge must live among those who seek it with him."

"The pathway of our life is predetermined though we do not see it."

"Beauty is its own excuse for being."

"We are all shadows of our better selves."

"The good that comes to us is often written so small that we cannot perceive it."

"Temptation can become virtue if one is strong enough."