"among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence:- 'be true! be true! be true! show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!'"
The excerpt above is the original text of the scarlet letter. If this excerpt is to be converted into modern text, it will look pretty much like this: Among many morals that I could draw from the tale, I choose this: “Be true! Be true! If you will not show the world your worst, at least show some quality that suggests to others the worst in you!”
