Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour

It's like obituaries, when you die they finally give you good reviews.

Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.

When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.

A person's shadow stood for his legacy, his impact on the world. Some people cast hardly any shadow at all. Some cast long, deep shadows that endured for centuries.

After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

LEGACY, n. A gift from one who is legging it out of this vale of tears.

Each man forms his duty according to his predominant characteristic; the stern require an avenging judge; the gentle, a forgiving father. Just so the pygmies declared that Jove himself was a pygmy.

Never trust a man who has not a single redeeming vice.

To know the good from the bad, measure the heart. Actions reveal the true coloring of one's heart, not their intentions.

I think you should live your life so that the maximum number of people will attend your funeral.

Men are not to be judged by their looks, habits, and appearances; but by the character of their lives and conversations, and by their works.

Better than glory, or honors, or fame, (Though I am striving for those to-day) To know that some heart will cherish my name, And think of me kindly, with blessings, alway.

If you judge the character, you cant play it.

Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning - because that ain't the time at all... When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.

Jon Krakauer had documented it very accurately and very well but this kid made a real impression on people, and likewise they on him. To talk to them was very moving in many cases because they talk about him like they saw him yesterday. In most cases they knew this kid for a couple of weeks in their whole life and he just lasted with them.

As far as i am concerned, i am in the knowledge that death can never extinguish the torch which i have lit in Ghana and Africa. Long after i am dead and gone, the light will continue to burn and be borne aloft, giving light and guidance to all people

Nobody lives forever, but we all shine on.

It is the duty of men to judge men only by their actions. Our faculties furnish us with no means of arriving at the motive, the character, the secret self. We call the tree good from its fruits, and the man, from his works.

If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

It is grievous for a man to leave behind him a shadow in his own shape.

It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god.

You get to know more of the character of a man in a round of golf than in six months of political experience.

It is an error common to many to take the character of mankind from the worst and basest amongst them; whereas, as an excellent writer has observed, nothing should be esteemed as characteristical, of a species but what is to be found amongst the best and the most perfect individuals of that species.