Quote

Great men need to be lifted upon the shoulders of the whole world, in order to conceive their great ideas or perform their great deeds. That is, there must be an atmosphere of greatness round about them. A hero cannot be a hero unless in an heroic world.

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.
Needs
Upon
Round
Men
Order
Rounds
World
Cannot
Shoulders
Ideas
Atmosphere
Need
Deeds
Lifted
Whole
Greatness
Conceive
Must
Hero
Heroic
Great
Unless
Perform

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Language,-human language,-after all is but little better than the croak and cackle of fowls, and other utterances of brute nature,-sometimes not so adequate.
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Easy reading is damn hard writing.
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He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous gripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure.
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We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point.
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Every young sculptor seems to think that he must give the world some specimen of indecorous womanhood, and call it Eve, Venus, a Nymph, or any name that may apologize for a lack of decent clothing.
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As a general rule, Providence seldom vouchsafes to mortals any more than just that degree of encouragement which suffices to keep them at a reasonably full exertion of their powers.
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Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.
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Honesty and wisdom are such a delightful pastime, at another person's expense!
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The present is burthened too much with the past.
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How is it possible to sayan unkind or irreverential word of Rome? The city of all time, and of all the world!
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Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.
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By the sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places — whether in church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest — where crime has been committed, and shall exult to behold the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot.
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What a sweet reverence is that when a young man deems his mistress a little more than mortal and almost chides himself for longing to bring her close to his heart.
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Mountains are earth's undecaying monuments.
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Earth has one angel less and heaven one more, since yesterday.
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The divine chemistry works in the subsoil.
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Labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it without becoming proportionately brutalized.
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