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
Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art and poetry should be interpreted on a personal level, transcending the artist's original intent.
Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes the importance of personal interpretation in art and poetry. He suggests that the true value of these forms lies in their ability to evoke deeper meanings and emotions in the viewer or reader, beyond what the creator may have explicitly expressed. This notion of suggestiveness allows for a richer, more subjective experience of art.
Themes
ArtPoetryInterpretationSuggestivenessCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the importance of personal connection to art, this quote could illustrate how individuals can derive unique meanings from artworks.
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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