Quotes from book
The Scarlet Letter

Name: The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

“I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XX: The Minister in a Maze

“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XXIV: Conclusion
Context: Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: — "Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!"

“All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false- it is impalpable- it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself is in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“Do anything, save to lie down and die!”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“It [the scarlet letter] had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XV: Hester and Pearl

“Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!" whispered her mother. "We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“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

“… if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom…”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“There are many things in this world that a child must not ask about.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XVIII: A Flood of Sunshine

“It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XXIV: Conclusion
Context: It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his object.

“She could no longer borrow from the future to ease her present grief.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“The sorrow that lay cold in her mother's heart… converted it into a tomb.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

“She wanted—what some people want throughout life—a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter