The Scarlet Letter

"Happiness hath not been our portion in this world"

"Thou and I never knew what we might have been"

"Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath a book with him"

"Let me create a woman after thine own heart, said the boy"

"Never! It never can be!"

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

"Art thou like the Black Man that haunts this forest?"

"Thou wilt love her dearly, said Hester, calmly, as a mother speaks"

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

"What we did had a consecration of its own"

"God will show mercy, He always does."

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

"Behold, Hester, the weariness, the despair, and downward tendency of his soul!"

"That letter was meant for no such purpose."

"Mother, I have told all the people what the scarlet letter means—for its gold thread."

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

"Keep, therefore, the secret, cousin Wentworth!"

"Forgive, and leave his further retribution to the Infinite!"

"Better to starve than to live at his cost!"

"There is a sword hanging over thee."

"Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you!"

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

"I, whose daily existence is a lie."

"Better to die than to live!"

"Hadst thou sought all things else, that bird and bosom were mine!"

"Dost thou see yonder child? She is naturally cruel. I have often been terrified by her intelligence."

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

"God knows; and He is merciful!"

"I am not to be driven off. I may come and go as I list."

"Thou hast escaped me!"