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But, all this while, I was giving myself very unnecessary alarm. Providence had mediated better things for me than I could possibly imagine for myself.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the futility of worrying, suggesting that better outcomes are often guided by a higher power or providence.

In this quote, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses the idea that much of human anxiety and concern is unnecessary because a greater force, which he refers to as 'Providence', often has plans that surpass our limited imagination. It conveys a sense of surrender to the unknown and an understanding that life can unfold in unexpectedly positive ways if we release our fears and worries.

Themes

WorryProvidenceImagineOutcomesAnxiety

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote during a speech about mental health to emphasize the importance of trusting the process.

More from Nathaniel Hawthorne

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.
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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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