Nathaniel Hawthorne quotes

“Mountains are earth's undecaying monuments.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Nobody has any conscience about adding to the improbabilities of a marvelous tale.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“You can get assent to almost any proposition so long as you are not going to do anything about it.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“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.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“My fortune somewhat resembled that of a person who should entertain an idea of committing suicide, and, altogether beyond his hopes, meet with the good hap to be murdered.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne