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
I love my mother, but there has been, ever since my boyhood, a sort of coldness of intercourse between us, such as is apt to come between people of strong feelings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a complex relationship between the speaker and their mother, characterized by love but also emotional distance.
Nathaniel Hawthorne reflects on the relationship with his mother, acknowledging a deep love for her while also recognizing a persistent emotional distance that has existed since his childhood. This 'coldness of intercourse' suggests that intense feelings can sometimes complicate familial connections, leading to a relationship that is both affectionate and estranged.
Themes
MotherLoveRelationshipEmotional DistanceFamily
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be referenced during a discussion about the emotional complexities of parent-child relationships.
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.
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The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
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