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
I wonder that we Americans love our country at all, it having no limits and no oneness; and when you try to make it a matter of the heart, everything falls away except one's native State; -neither can you seize hold of that, unless you tear it out of the Union, bleeding and quivering.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the complexities of American national identity and emotional attachment to one’s native state.
Nathaniel Hawthorne muses on the paradox of American patriotism, noting how the vast and diverse nature of the country makes it difficult to feel a singular, heartfelt connection. He suggests that one's true sense of belonging can often be tied to a specific location, which may clash with the concept of a unified nation, ultimately portraying a struggle between personal loyalty and national identity.
Themes
American IdentityPatriotismHomeNational UnityPersonal Connection
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about national unity, one might reflect on the personal nature of state connections using this quote.
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.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
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.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
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
Similar quotes
The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.
William Sloane CoffinRead
To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.
Bertolt BrechtRead
Strange - is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.
HoraceRead
If you look throughout human history ... the central epiphany of every religious tradition always occurs in the wilderness.
John F. KennedyRead
Neither happiness nor grief are everlasting in this life - but one of the two is everlasting in the next. Which one do you want?
Abu Ammaar Yasir QadhiRead
Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
Lois Mcmaster BujoldRead