"How strange, [...] that a simple black veil, such as any
woman might wear on her bonnet should become such a terrible thing on Mr.
Hooper's face!"
"Be mine and hereafter, there shall be no veil over my face, no darkness between our souls! It is but a mortal veil-- it is not for eternity!"
-The Minister's Black Veil
"Carefully now, Aminadab; carefully, thou human machine; carefully, thou man of clay.
-The Birthmark
"Herein did the shape of evil dip his hand and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own."
-Young Goodman Brown
"Flower and maiden were different, and yet the same, and fraught with some strange peril in either shape.
-Rappaccini's Daughter
"When the artist rose high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by which he made it perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the reality.
-The Artist the Beautiful