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.
In youth men are apt to write more wisely than they really know or feel; and the remainder of life may be not idly spent in realizing and convincing themselves of the wisdom which they uttered long ago.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Young people often express profound thoughts they don't fully understand, and later in life, they may dedicate themselves to understanding those thoughts.
This quote suggests that in their youth, individuals can articulate deep wisdom or insights that they may not yet fully comprehend. As they progress through life, they often find themselves reflecting on those early expressions, working to understand and embody the wisdom they once claimed, thus turning their youthful articulations into a lifelong journey of self-discovery and realization.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a commencement speech to encourage graduates to reflect on their past insights as they move forward.
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.
All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.
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.
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.
The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
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I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.
This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for.
Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.