My body is but the lees of my better being.
HERMAN MELVILLEMy body is but the lees of my better being.
HERMAN MELVILLEFailure is the test of greatness.
HERMAN MELVILLESilence is the only Voice of our God.
HERMAN MELVILLEWhat plays the mischief with the truth is that men will insist upon the universal application of a temporary feeling or opinion.
HERMAN MELVILLEYou 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.
HERMAN MELVILLEBeneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.
HERMAN MELVILLETis no dishonor when he who would dishonor you, only dishonors himself.
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 MELVILLEThe only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
HERMAN MELVILLEA book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf – at any rate it is safer from criticism.
HERMAN MELVILLEWe cannot live for ourselves alone.
HERMAN MELVILLEThere’s magic in the water that draws all men away form the land, that leads them over hills, down creeks and streams and rivers to the sea.
HERMAN MELVILLEI do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.
HERMAN MELVILLEOf 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.
HERMAN MELVILLEGenius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.
HERMAN MELVILLEA smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.
HERMAN MELVILLE