It was one of those moments—which sometimes occur only at the interval of years—when a man's moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind's eye. Not improbably, he had never before viewed himself a...
Such loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin.
Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.
Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.
When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived.
What a strange, sad man is he! said the child, as if speaking partly to herself. In the dark night-time, he calls us to him, and holds thy hand and mine, as when we stood with him on the scaffold yond...
To the untrue man, the whole universe is false--it is impalpable--it shrinks to nothing within his grasp.
The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds--the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church bell, and some...
She had wandered, without rule or guidance, into a moral wilderness... Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods....
Life, within doors, has few pleasanter prospects than a neatly-arranged and well-provisioned breakfast-table.
Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart!
His stories are good to hear at night, because we can dream about them asleep; and good in the morning, too, because then we can dream about them awake. (Cowslip)
But this had been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose.
That Archangel, now, " Miriam continued; "how fair he looks, with his unruffled wings, with his unhacked sword, and clad in his bright armor, and that exquisitely fitting sky-blue tunic, cut in the la...
The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teacher...
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.
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 its...
I sometimes fancy, said Hilda, on whose susceptibility the scene always made a strong impression, that Rome--mere Rome--will crowd everything else out of my heart.
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought...
Happiness in this world when it comes comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit and it leads us on a wild-goose chase and is never attained. Follow some other object and very possibly we...