The greatest obstacle to ...

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove oneself a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed.
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove oneself a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne

More phrases

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Quotes from the same author

Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price-purchased with all she had-her mother's only treasure!
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
The sorrow that lay cold in her mother's heart... converted it into a tomb.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
I love my mother, but there has been, ever since my boyhood, a sort of coldness of intercourse between us, such as is apt to come between people of strong feelings.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne