Nathaniel Hawthorne

You must begin to hurt if you would become great.

Ethan Brand

The lime burner's own sins rose up within him, and made his memory riotous with a throng of evil shapes that asserted their kindred with the Master sin, whatever it might be, which it was within the scope of man's corrupted nature to conceive and cherish. They were all of one family; they went to and fro between his breast and Ethan Brand's, and carried dark greetings from one to the other."

A sin that grew nowhere else! The sin of an intellect that triumphed over the scene of brotherhood with man, and reverence for God, and sacrificed everything to its own mighty claims! The only sin that deserves a recompense of immortal agony. Freely, were it to do again, would I incur the guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the retribution! —ethan brand on the Unpardonable Sin

Oh, Mother Earth, who art no more my Mother, and into whose bosom this frame shall never be resolved! Oh, mankind, whose brotherhood I have cast off and trampled thy great heart beneath my feet! Oh, stars of Heaven, that shone on me of old, as if to light me onward and upward! --Farewell all, and forever! Come, deadly element of Fire--henceforth my familiar friend! Embrace me as I do thee.

The Scarlet Letter

It is a good lesson--thought it may be a hard one--for a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the world's dignitaries by such mans, to step outside the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all that he aims at.

When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived. When, however, it forms its judgment, as it usually does, on the intuitions of its great and warm heart, the conclusions thus attained are so profound and so unerring, as to possess the character of truths supernaturally revealed.

Dost thou remember me?