Herman Melville Quotes

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

Tis no dishonor when he who would dishonor you, only dishonors himself.

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.

Man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.

A man of true science… thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.

Do not presume, well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed, to criticize the poor

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.

A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf – at any rate it is safer from criticism.

No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.

Failure is the true test of greatness