A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.
HERMAN MELVILLEIt is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.
More Herman Melville Quotes
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What plays the mischief with the truth is that men will insist upon the universal application of a temporary feeling or opinion.
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Tis no dishonor when he who would dishonor you, only dishonors himself.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Ignorance is the parent of fear.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Fame is an accident; merit a thing absolute.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.
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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.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.
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Meditation and water are wedded for ever.
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Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?
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A man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
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Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.
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A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true.
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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.
HERMAN MELVILLE