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 MELVILLEHope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
More Herman Melville Quotes
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If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.
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Meditation and water are wedded for ever.
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Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
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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.
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We cannot live for ourselves alone.
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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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I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.
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Do not presume, well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed, to criticize the poor
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I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.
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A man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
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When among wild beasts, if they menace you, be a wild beast.
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To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
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In a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.
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Whatever my fate, I’ll go to it laughing.
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Fame is an accident; merit a thing absolute.
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Better 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.
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The poor man wants many things; the covetous man, all.
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Failure is the true test of greatness
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Nature is nobody’s ally.
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Stay true to the dreams of thy youth.
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The eyes are the gateway to the soul.
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Only the man who says no is free
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Aid my disillusionment, my friend!
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Tis no dishonor when he who would dishonor you, only dishonors himself.
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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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He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great.
HERMAN MELVILLE