It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
HERMAN MELVILLEBetter to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
More Herman Melville Quotes
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No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
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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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There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.
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All things that God would have us do are hard for us to do–remember that–and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade.
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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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Nature is nobody’s ally.
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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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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 not down in any map; true places never are.
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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.
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The poor man wants many things; the covetous man, all.
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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.
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Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.
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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.
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When the passage “All men are born free and equal,” when that passage was being written were not some of the signers legalised owners of slaves?
HERMAN MELVILLE