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 MELVILLEMeditation and water are wedded for ever.
More Herman Melville Quotes
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Man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
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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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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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A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true.
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The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
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Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.
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I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.
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I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, no matter how comical.
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Silence is the only Voice of our God.
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Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
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It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
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You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world…. We are not a nation, so much as a world.
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Ignorance is the parent of fear.
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I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.
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There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.
HERMAN MELVILLE






