He was not ill-fitted to be the head and representative of a community which owed its origin and progress, and its present state of development, not to the impulses of youth, but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little. Nathaniel Hawthorne
About This Quote

George Eliot was referring to John Stuart Mill, the famous philosopher and political theorist. In her essay “John Stuart Mill,” Eliot writes that Mill, “had been a youth of great promise.” She goes on to say that as a youth, Mill possessed a strong sense of identity and purpose. However, as the years went by and Mill became a man, he came to have a different view on life and what it meant. Eventually, he came to realize the value of life and the importance of perseverance.

Source: The Scarlet Letter

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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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