The 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 MELVILLEWhat is an atheist, but one who does not, or will not, see in the universe a ruling principle of love; and what a misanthrope, but one who does not, or will not, see in man a ruling principle of kindness?
More Herman Melville Quotes
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It is not down in any map; true places never are.
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The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils.
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Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.
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Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
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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Art is the objectification of feeling.
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An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
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Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
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The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
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There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.
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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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My body is but the lees of my better being.
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Thou hast evoked in me profounder spells than the evoking one, thou face! For me, thou hast uncovered one infinite, dumb, beseeching countenance of mystery, underlying all the surfaces of visible time and space.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Aid my disillusionment, my friend!
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
HERMAN MELVILLE