658 Quotes by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nobody has any conscience about adding to the improbabilities of a marvelous tale.

But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.

A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats.

But, all this while, I was giving myself very unnecessary alarm. Providence had mediated better things for me than I could possibly imagine for myself.

Cupid in these latter times has probably laid aside his bow and arrow, and uses fire-arms -- a pistol -- perhaps a revolver.

The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.

A human spirit may find no insufficiency of food fit for it, even in the Custom House.

In this republican country, amid the fluctuating waves of our social life, somebody is always at the drowning-point.

What we call real estate - the solid ground to build a house on - is the broad foundation on which nearly all the guilt of this world rests.