Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Life consists of both noble and base elements.
In plain terms
Life has good and bad parts.
What can you take from it?
Accept both strengths and weaknesses in life.

Where it applies

  • philosophical reflection
  • personal growth
  • literary analysis

Putting it to work

  • reflect on life balance
  • write about reality

Questions to consider

  • What parts of your life feel like marble?
  • How do you handle the mud?

Another view

It oversimplifies the variety of human experience.

More from Nathaniel Hawthorne

  1. God will give him blood to drink!

    Permalink to quote #57
  2. What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!

    Permalink to quote #59
  3. The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressiv…

    Permalink to quote #56

Related quotes

  1. The man of flesh and bone; the man who is born, suffers, and dies-above all, who dies; the man who eats and drinks and plays and sleeps and thinks and wills; t…

    Miguel de UnamunoMiguel de Unamuno quote #10
  2. At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

    Albert CamusAlbert Camus quote #28
  3. I think everybody, no matter how rich or poor, how young or old, has a phase in his life when he's depressive. It's reality. Not a lot of people want to talk a…

    Chris CornellChris Cornell quote #41