Nathaniel Hawthorne

It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society. The thoughts alone suffice them, without investing itself in the flesh and blood of action.

She wanted—what some people want throughout life—a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy.

She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.

In the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and the revelry above may cause us to forget their existence.

And there I sat, long long ago, waiting for the world to know me.

To do nothing is the way to be nothing.

The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of men.

A few feathery flakes are scattered widely through the air, and hover downward with uncertain flight, now almost alighting on the earth, now whirled again aloft into remote regions of the atmosphere.

Shall we never never get rid of this Past? ... It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body.

The sorrow that lay cold in her mother's heart... converted it into a tomb.

Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.