Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, this it overflows upon the outward world.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
Labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it without becoming proportionately brutalized.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Labor can strip away humanity and compassion, leading to brutal behavior.
In this quote, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses a somber view of labor, suggesting that the toil and struggle associated with work can have a dehumanizing effect on individuals. He implies that when people engage in labor, they risk losing their innate kindness and compassion, becoming more brutal in their interactions and attitudes, which raises questions about the nature of work and its impact on human character.
Themes
LaborBrutalizationWorkHumanityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the impact of industrialization on worker's mental health.
More from Nathaniel Hawthorne
All quotes →A bodily disease which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.
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All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.
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There is so much wretchedness in the world, that we may safely take the word of any mortal professing to need our assistance; and, even should we be deceived, still the good to ourselves resulting from a kind act is worth more than the trifle by which we purchase it.
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Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune, when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her sensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the marble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
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