“In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvelous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne , book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter II: The Market-Place

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Nathaniel Hawthorne 128

American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879) 1804–1864

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