Heart and mind Quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne
““And now I begin to understand why I was imprisoned so many years in this lonely chamber, and why I could never break through the viewless bolts and bars; for if I had sooner made my escape into the world, I should have grown hard and rough, and been covered with earthly dust, and my heart might have become callous by rude encounters with the multi-tude.. ... But living in solitude till the fulness of time was come, I still kept the dew of my youth and the freshness of my heart… I used to think that I could imagine all passions, all feelings and states of the heart and mind; but how little did I know!...Indeed, we are but shadows—we are not endowed with real life, and all that seems most real about us is but the thinnest substance of a dream—till the heart be touched. That touch creates us,—then we begin to be,—thereby we are beings of reality and inheritors of eternity.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Scarlet Letter, 1850
The passage reflects on how prolonged isolation preserves youthful purity, while premature exposure can harden the heart, suggesting that true reality emerges when the heart is touched, granting genuine existence and eternity.
In simple terms: Solitude keeps the heart fresh; contact makes us real.
Key Takeaway
Seek genuine emotional connections.
Themes
solitude
purity
growth
reality
eternity
Mood
contemplative
melancholic
hopeful
Type
philosophical
literary
When to use this quote
- personal reflection
- creative writing
- philosophical essay
Key Concepts
existentialism
human nature
psychology
Questions to Reflect On
- How does solitude shape your inner self?
- What moments have awakened your true feeling?
A Different Perspective
When isolated too long, one may miss life's richness; premature exposure can cause emotional hardening.
![“Allow me to give you some advice from the heart: don’t give up art, and even give yourself over to it even more than so far. […] Living in solitude and embittering your soul with recollections, you can make your life very gloomy. There is a single refuge, a single medicine: art and creative work.” quote by Fyodor Dostoyevsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ba9/fyodor-dostoyevsky-94_advice_allow-me-to-give-you-some-advice-from-th_3092834.jpg)
