We cannot live for ourselves alone.
HERMAN MELVILLEWe cannot live for ourselves alone.
HERMAN MELVILLEWhat plays the mischief with the truth is that men will insist upon the universal application of a temporary feeling or opinion.
HERMAN MELVILLEBetter 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.
HERMAN MELVILLEArt is the objectification of feeling.
HERMAN MELVILLEIs there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?
HERMAN MELVILLENo philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
HERMAN MELVILLEBenevolent 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 only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
HERMAN MELVILLEWe cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
HERMAN MELVILLEI know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.
HERMAN MELVILLEThey talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
HERMAN MELVILLEWe 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 MELVILLEThere is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.
HERMAN MELVILLEHeaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
HERMAN MELVILLEMan is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
HERMAN MELVILLEFaith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
HERMAN MELVILLE