"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."
"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 to be resisted, and when it be obeyed."
12 likes
Source: The Blithedale Romance ch. 2 (1852)
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
"Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release."
"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."
"Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not."
"Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them."