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
The love of posterity is the consequence of the necessity of death. If a man were sure of living forever here, he would not care about his offspring.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our awareness of mortality drives us to care for future generations.
In this quote, Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests that the inevitability of death instills in us a sense of responsibility toward those who come after us. The acknowledgment of our own mortality compels individuals to invest in the well-being of their offspring, as they strive to leave a legacy and ensure the survival and prosperity of future generations. Without the fear of death, the urgency to nurture and guide the next generation would diminish.
Themes
MortalityPosterityLegacyCareOffspring
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech emphasizing the importance of future generations.
More from Nathaniel Hawthorne
All quotes βA 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.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
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.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
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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