“Many people are seeking, at this very moment, to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eider-down pillow. But she has no great tenderness, even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later, --oftener sooner than late,-- is apt to fling off her nestlings with a scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak, or a rankling wound from her barbed arrows.”

American novelist and short story writer

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known for fiction that explores history, morality, and religion, often through a reflective and uneasy lens. His work helped define the American short story and remains closely associated with themes of guilt, conscience, and the past. Across his novels and shorter fiction, he returns to questions of human nature and the moral weight of experience.