The Scarlet Letter

"Wouldst thou avenge thyself on the innocent babe?"

"Forgive me, and I shall rejoice!"

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

"I am a man who belonged to no church."

"Keep, therefore, the secret to thyself."

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

"Thou and I are not the only ones!"

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

"Let the black flower blossom as it may."

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

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

"Thou wilt not reveal his name? Not outwardly, but within!"

"The child of godly parents must needs grow up sin-stricken?"

"I shall seek my peace in solitude."

"There is evil in this letter!"

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

"Dost thou mock me!"

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

"Thou art cruel!"

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

"Is there not shade enough in all this boundless forest to hide thy shame and despair?"

"My old faith comes back to me."

"Shall we not spend our lives together?"

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

"If thou feelest it to be for the best, let the sun shine on my infamy as well as on yours."

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

"Thy act is sinful; I bear no hate with thee."

"Be true! Be true! Be true!"

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

"Do anything, save to lie and play the hypocrite!"