The Scarlet Letter

"he could not abide the thoughts of committing himself to an irredeemable doom"

"Come, therefore, and pluck down with me this flower of my sin!"

"That old man!—if thou truly lovest me, thou wilt leave him to the justice of the Infinite."

"Thou hast wronged neither me nor it! There is no law, nor reverence for authority, nor regard for human ordances."

"I pity thee, for the good that has been wasted in thy nature!"

"Whatsoever thou sayest, I shall keep as fast a secret as before."

"His whole system is poisoned. All that sophistical philosophy does not remove."

"Art thou not weary of the toll and moil of life?"

"I feel no love, nor feigned love, for this woman!"

"There is no pathway leading away from it!"

"Let the black flower blossom as it may!"

"Thou wilt forgive me!—wilt thou not?"

"God gave her a child, and took my child away from me!"

"Keep, I pray you, the same woman still; for, by all means, I shall come again!"

"Better to die than to live in this disordered state!"

"I am not, nor ever was, the husband of this woman."

"Canst thou not see God's providence in this?"

"Thou and I, Hester,—what have we to do with all this moss-grown and flabby success?"

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

"Be true! Be true! Be true!"

"What have you to do with my inmost being?"

"Better to die than to remain thus!"

"Wilt thou yet forgive me?"

"I see in it rather the pledge that, in heaven, we shall yet stand together."

"Hadst thou sought vengeance, it had been better."

"Beware! Beware! It may be that there is no other spot so delicious to him as this very town."

"I stand upon the scaffold of the pillory with this woman."

"What is it but a mockery?"

"There is no one in the world whom I could speak freely."

"Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us?"