Love letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne Vol 1 Quotes

“Thou are my only reality-- all other people are but shadows to me: all events and actions, in which thou dost not mingle, are but dreams.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, Love letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne Vol 1

“I used to think that I could imagine all passions, all feelings, all states of the heart and mind; but how little did I know what it is to be mingled with another's being! Thou only hast taught me that I have a heart – thou only hast thrown a light deep downward, and upward, into my soul. Thou only hast revealed me to myself; for without thy aid, my best knowledge of myself would have been merely to know my own shadow – to watch it flickering on the wall, and mistake its fantasies for my own real actions. 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 is touched. That touch creates us – then we begin to be – thereby we are beings of reality, and inheritors of eternity. Now, dearest, dost thou comprehend what thou hast done for me?”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, Love letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne Vol 1