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That pit of blackness that lies beneath us, everywhere ... the firmest substance of human happiness is but a thin crust spread over it, with just reality enough to bear up the illusive stage-scenery amid which we tread. It needs no earthquake to open the chasm.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Nathaniel Hawthorne
Age: 59 †
Born: 1804
Born: July 4
Died: 1864
Died: May 18
Diplomat
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Salem
Massachusetts
Nathaniel Hathorne
Monsieur de l'Aubépine
N. H.
Happiness
Bear
Blackness
Reality
Spread
Amid
Illusive
Human
Everywhere
Earthquakes
Firmest
Humans
Bears
Scenery
Chasm
Enough
Lies
Pits
Crust
Needs
Stage
Thin
Chasms
Open
Beneath
Earthquake
Lying
Substance
Tread

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We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.
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I do detest all offices - all, at least, that are held on a political tenure.
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The breath of peace was fanning her glorious brow, her head was bowed a very little forward, and a tress, escaping from its bonds, fell by the side of her pure white temple, and close to her just opened lips it hung there motionless! no breath disturbed its repose! She slept as an angel might sleep, having accomplished the mission of her God.
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Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!
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I heard a neigh. Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh it was. My very heart leapt with the sound.
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What would a man do, if he were compelled to live always in the sultry heat of society, and could never bathe himself in cool solitude?
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Accuracy is twin brother to honesty, and inaccuracy to dishonesty.
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Just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God's care and pity for every separate need.
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We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.
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Yesterday I visited the British Museum an exceedingly tiresome affair. It quite crushes a person to see so much at once and I wandered from hall to hall with a weary and heavy heart. The present is burdened too much with the past.
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Moonlight is sculpture.
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