Romance and poetry, ivy, lichens and wallflowers need ruin to make them grow.

There is no such thing in man's nature as a settled and full resolve either for good or evil, except at the very moment of execution.

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.

The evening before my departure for Blithedale, I was returning to my bachelor-apartments, after attending the wonderful exhibition of the Veiled Lady, when an elderly-man of rather shabby appearance met me in an obscure part of the street.

Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.

Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release.

Mankind are earthen jugs with spirits in them.