Nathaniel Hawthorne citáty

strana 2

„Naším nejbližším přítelem není ten, komu ukážeme to nejhorší, ale to nejlepší z naší povahy.“

„Zamilovat se v životě můžeme jen jednou, ale milovat celý život.“

„Milující žena je květ růže, nemilující jen její stvol, plný trnů.“

„Budoucnost je plna výzev a nadějí.“

„Jemným a krásným skutečnostem rozumíme nejlépe, jsou-li proměněny v éter vzdáleností v čase.“

„Milovat nutno bez milosti: každá jiná láska je slabost.“

„Je ovšem pravda, že když autor vydá svou knihu napospas, nehodlá jí promlouvat k těm mnohým, kteří ji s nechutí odhodí nebo vůbec nevezmou do ruky, ale k těm několika, kdo ho pochopí, třeba líp než většina jeho spolužáků a vrstevníků.“

„Ženská cudnost se skládá, stejně jako cibule, z celé řady vrstev.“

„Železným pravidlem našich dnů je požadovat od života cíl a účel. Z nás všech se činí součástky složitého soukolí pokroku, který nás může přivést jedině do studenějších a bezútěšnějších končin, než v jakých jsme se narodili. Trvá se na tom, aby každý něco přidal - třeba špetičku, ale vydřenou neúnavným úsilím - k nahromaděné kupě užitečnosti, jež bude užitečná jen k tomu, aby naše potomstvo zavalila ještě tíživějšími myšlenkami a nezřízenější lopotou než nás. Žádný život dnes neplyne jako nespoutaná řeka, i nejnepatrnější potůček má své mlýnské kolo. Z příliš usilovného odhodlání jít naprosto správně jdeme naprosto špatně.“

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

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

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

“Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.”

“We men of study, whose heads are in our books, have need to be straightly looked after! We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.”

“No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike. Times change, and people change; and if our hearts do not change as readily, so much the worse for us.”

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

“There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.”

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

“… happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release…”

“It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society. The thoughts alone suffice them, without investing itself in the flesh and blood of action.”

“Shall we never never get rid of this Past?… It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body.”

“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.”

“And there I sat, long long ago, waiting for the world to know me.”

“Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.”

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

“What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit.”

“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.”

“Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind.”

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

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

“It is very queer, but not the less true, that people are generally quite as vain, or even more so, of their deficiencies than of their available gifts.”

“Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.”