Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.
HERMAN MELVILLENo philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
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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Failure is the test of greatness.
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Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
A man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.
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It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.
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We are only what we are; not what we would be; nor every thing we hope for. We are but a step in a scale, that reaches further above us than below.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
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You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know any thing.
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For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.
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We cannot live for ourselves alone.
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.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
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I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, no matter how comical.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.
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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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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 -
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 MELVILLE -
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 -
There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.
HERMAN MELVILLE -
I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
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There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.
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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 most mighty of nature’s laws is this, that out of Death she brings Life.
HERMAN MELVILLE