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 latest Paradisiacal mode! What a dainty air of the first celestial society! With what half-scornful delicacy he sets his prettily sandaled foot on the head of his prostrate foe! But, is it thus that virtue looks the moment after its death struggle with evil? No, no; I could have told Guido better. A full third of the Archangel's feathers should have been torn from his wings; the rest all ruffled, till they looked like Satan's own! His sword should be streaming with blood, and perhaps broken half-way to the hilt; his armor crushed, his robes rent, his breast gory; a bleeding gash on his brow, cutting right across the stern scowl of battle! He should press his foot down upon the old serpent, as if his very soul depended upon it, feeling him squirm mightily, and doubting whether the fight were half over yet, and how the victory might turn! And, with all this fierceness, this grimness, this unutterable horror, there should be something high, tender, and holy in Michael's eyes, and around his mouth. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Some Similar Quotes
  1. Those who have wisdom have all: Fools with all have nothing. - Thiruvalluvar

  2. May I never, I say, become that abnormal, merciless animal, that deformed monstrosity - a virtuous woman. - Mary MacLane

  3. I see your point. It irks you to see anyone at all who is able to work permitted to live without working. But why do you consider work a virtue? - Robert A. Heinlein

  4. Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. - John Locke

  5. Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. - George Washington

More Quotes By Nathaniel Hawthorne
  1. Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.

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

  3. Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

  4. Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.

  5. Death should take me while I am in the mood.

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