A man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
HERMAN MELVILLEFriendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
More Herman Melville Quotes
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If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.
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Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.
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When among wild beasts, if they menace you, be a wild beast.
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Failure is the test of greatness.
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There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.
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I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, no matter how comical.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run
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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 MELVILLE -
A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf – at any rate it is safer from criticism.
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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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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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The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.
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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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The most mighty of nature’s laws is this, that out of Death she brings Life.
HERMAN MELVILLE






