Quotes: Scenes (4)

Scene 1125 "We stand now on the river’s brink…may well be called the Concord—the river of peace and quietness—for it is certainly the most unexcitable and sluggish stream that ever loitered, imperceptibly, towards its eternity, the sea…I had lived three weeks beside it, before it grew quite clear to my perception which way the current flowed." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”


Scene 1126 "…the fragrant white pond-lily abounds, generally selecting a position just so far from the river'’ brink, that it cannot be grasped, save at the hazard of plunging in." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Scene 1126  "Each tree and rock, and every blade of grass, is distinctly imaged [in the golden sunset], and, however unsightly in reality, assumes ideal beauty in the reflection." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Scene 1130  "And what is more melancholy than the old apple trees, that linger about the spot where once stood a homestead, but where there is now only a ruined chimney, rising out of a grassy and weed-grown cellar?" Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Scene 1131 "In the stillest [autumn] afternoon, if I listened, the thump of a great apple was audible, falling without a breath of wind, from the mere necessity of perfect ripeness." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”