Scarlet Letter

Famous quotes containing the words scarlet and/or letter:

    Let us have a good many maples and hickories and scarlet oaks, then, I say. Blaze away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors a village can display? A village is not complete, unless it have these trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town clock. A village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw loose, an essential part is wanting.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Shears: You mean, you intend to uphold the letter of the law, no matter what it costs?
    Colonel Nicholson: Without law, Commander, there is no civilization.
    Shears: That’s just my point. Here, there is no civilization.
    Colonel Nicholson: Then perhaps we have the opportunity to introduce it.
    Michael Wilson (1914–1978)