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
All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Graceful attributes are often fleeting and not lasting.
This quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests that qualities that appear beautiful and graceful are often temporary and do not endure. It reflects on the nature of grace and beauty, hinting at the idea that what captures our admiration may not stand the test of time, encouraging us to seek deeper, more lasting values in life.
Themes
GraceBeautyEphemeralWisdomAttributes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on the importance of inner qualities, one might reference this quote to emphasize the significance of lasting values over superficial appearances.
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
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.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
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 HawthorneRead
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Nothing is improved by anger, unless it be the arch of a cat's back. A man with his back up is spoiling his figure. People look none the handsomer for being red in the face. It takes a great deal out of a man to get into a towering rage; it is almost as unhealthy as having a fit. . . . Whatever wrong I suffer, it can not do me half so much hurt as being angry about it.
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You looking good." "Devil's confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.
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Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.
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