Quote#Self
It is a good lesson — though it may often be a hard one — for a man…
Quote byNathaniel Hawthorne · 1804–1864
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Introduction: The Custom-House.
English (original)
It is a good lesson — though it may often 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 means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of all significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at.
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
More from Nathaniel Hawthorne
It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; not that they gape so long and wide—but so quickly close again!
Would Time but await the close of our favorite follies, we should all be young men, all of us, and until Doom's Day.
In old times, the settlers used to be astounded by the inroads of the northern Indians, coming down upon them from this mountain rampart, through some defile known only to themselves. It is indeed a wondrous path.
Let us forget the other names of American statesmen, that have been stamped upon these hills, but still call the loftiest — WASHINGTON. Mountains are Earth's undecaying monuments. They must stand while she endures, and never should be …
If his inmost heart could have been laid open, there would have been discovered that dream of undying fame, which, dream as it is, is more powerful than a thousand realities.
Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his …