Benevolent desires, after passing a certain point, can not undertake their own fulfillment without incurring the risk of evils beyond those sought to be remedied.
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.
More Herman Melville Quotes
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Do not presume, well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed, to criticize the poor
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There is nothing so slipperily alluring as sadness; we become sad in the first place by having nothing stirring to do; we continue in it, because we have found a snug sofa at last.
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Truth is in things, and not in words.
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They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
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Better be an old maid, a woman with herself as a husband, than the wife of a fool; and Solomon more than hints that all men are fools; and every wise man knows himself to be one.
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There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.
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My body is but the lees of my better being.
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Of 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.
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The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run
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Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, – for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it – not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.
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Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.
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Nature is nobody’s ally.
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Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that.
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I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.
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See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.
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Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.
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No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
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All 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.
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Only the man who says no is free
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Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.
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for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men
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Aid my disillusionment, my friend!
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It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
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You cannot hide the soul.
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Honor lies in the mane of a horse.
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A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf – at any rate it is safer from criticism.
HERMAN MELVILLE