The Scarlet Letter Quotes
The 8 most famous lines from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850), each with its speaker and the scene it belongs to. These are the quotes readers underline, copy into essays and put on walls - gathered in one place, explained in a line.
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“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.”
- Narrator. On the crowd's shifting judgment of Hester.
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“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
- Narrator. On Dimmesdale's concealed sin.
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“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.”
- Narrator. The moment Hester unclasps the letter in the forest.
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“What we did had a consecration of its own.”
- Hester Prynne. To Dimmesdale in the forest.
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“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait by which the worst may be inferred!”
- Narrator. The famous conclusion.
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“The world's law was no law for her mind.”
- Narrator. On Hester's radical thinking in her cottage.
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“It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.”
- Narrator. On Hester's outer obedience and inner freedom.
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“On a field, sable, the letter A, gules.”
- Narrator. The novel's strange final sentence.
Why these lines survive
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s sentences earn their fame by compression: each line carries the whole book’s argument in a form you can carry in your pocket. Read in order, the 8 quotes above also sketch the novel’s shape - the world it opens, the pressure it applies, the note it ends on. If you meet them before the book, nothing is spoiled beyond mood; if you meet them after, each one lands like a place you have been.
Quote collectors: pair this page with the The Scarlet Letter quiz to see which lines actually stuck, the book club questions when you want to argue about them, or how long the reread takes - about 4 hours and 29 minutes at an average pace. If the lines did their job and you want more of the same nerve, the books like The Scarlet Letter list is next.
Want the whole shelf’s lines? Our Nathaniel Hawthorne books in order guide lists every book.
How to use a quotes page
Three honest uses. Before reading: skim the first two quotes to taste the prose - if the voice does not pull you, the book will not either. During: mark which quote you actually reach in the text, because the distance between famous line and lived scene is where a book keeps its secrets. After: pick the one quote you would defend at dinner and check it against the discussion questions - a quote you can argue about is a quote you understood. What a quotes page is not for is replacing the book; five lines of Nathaniel Hawthorne are an invitation, not a summary.
More quote collections
To Kill a Mockingbird quotes, The Great Gatsby quotes, Of Mice and Men quotes, The Grapes of Wrath quotes - or browse quotes from all 133 classics. Then see which of them stuck on the original book quiz.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous quote from The Scarlet Letter?
“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.” - the line most readers meet first. The full list above gives the scene for every one of the 8.
How many The Scarlet Letter quotes are here?
8, chosen because they are the lines readers actually underline and repeat - each with who says it and where it lands in the book.
Are these quotes explained?
Yes - every quote carries its speaker and a one-line context, because a quote without its scene loses most of its charge.
Can I use these in an essay or post?
Short quoted lines with attribution are standard fair use in essays and posts. Quote accurately, name the author, and you are on solid ground.
Are these The Scarlet Letter quotes word-for-word accurate?
They are checked against the novel as written, not harvested from quote sites - which is why a few famous “lines” you may have seen elsewhere are missing here: many of those come from film adaptations or paraphrase the prose. What is listed above is the book.