Heaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
HERMAN MELVILLEHeaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
HERMAN MELVILLENature is nobody’s ally.
HERMAN MELVILLEHonor lies in the mane of a horse.
HERMAN MELVILLEGenius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.
HERMAN MELVILLEAll things that God would have us do are hard for us to do–remember that–and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade.
HERMAN MELVILLEAs for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
HERMAN MELVILLEAll round and round does the world lie as in a sharp-shooter’s ambush, to pick off the beautiful illusions of youth, by the pitiless cracking rifles of the realities of age.
HERMAN MELVILLEArt is the objectification of feeling.
HERMAN MELVILLEThe most mighty of nature’s laws is this, that out of Death she brings Life.
HERMAN MELVILLEThey talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
HERMAN MELVILLEA man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
HERMAN MELVILLEIn a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.
HERMAN MELVILLEThe Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot’s wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.
HERMAN MELVILLEFaith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
HERMAN MELVILLEOf all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.
HERMAN MELVILLEDream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
HERMAN MELVILLE