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Herman Melville Quotes - Page 2

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Time is made up of various ages; and each thinks its own a novelty.

Time is made up of various ages; and each thinks its own a novelty.

Herman Melville
Thinking, Age, Generations
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.235

Whatever my fate, I'll go to it laughing.

Herman Melville
Fate, Laughing

Art is the objectification of feeling.

Herman Melville
Inspirational, Art, Feelings
"Mind, An Essay on Human Feeling,". Book by Susanne Katherina Langer, vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 4, 1967.

He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great.

Herman Melville
Success, Wisdom, Failure
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.1775, e-artnow

The poor man wants many things; the covetous man, all.

Herman Melville
Men, Greed, Want
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.85

Youth is the time when hearts are large.

Herman Melville
Heart, Youth
Herman Melville (1991). “Selected Poems of Herman Melville”, p.50, Fordham Univ Press

The easiest way of life is the best.

Herman Melville
Way, Life Is
Herman Melville (2016). “Bartleby, The Scrivener”, p.3, Herman Melville

Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.

Herman Melville
Health, Color, Differences
1891 Billy Budd, Foretopman (first published1924), ch.21.

Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

Herman Melville
Inspirational, Christian, Drinking
Moby Dick ch. 3 (1851)

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Herman Melville
Travel, Adventure, Sea
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.12

Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.

Herman Melville
Inspirational, Strength, Beautiful
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.354

We cannot live for ourselves alone.

Herman Melville
Invisible Threads, Serving The Community

All experience teaches that, whenever there is a great national establishment, employing large numbers of officials, the public must be reconciled to support many incompetent men; for such is the favoritism and nepotism always prevailing in the purlieus of these establishments, that some incompetent persons are always admitted, to the exclusion of many of the worthy.

Herman Melville
Men, Numbers, Support
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket: or, The world in a man-of-war”, p.118

A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true.

Herman Melville
Truth, May, Sometimes
Herman Melville (2012). “Mardi: And A Voyage Thither (Annotated Complete Edition)”, p.231, Jazzybee Verlag

Youth is immortal; Tis the elderly only grow old!

Herman Melville
Elderly, Youth, Immortal
Herman Melville (1924). “The Works of Herman Melville: Redburn”

Stay true to the dreams of thy youth.

Herman Melville
Dream, Youth, Stay True
Herman Melville (2002). “Moby-Dick: or, The Whale”, p.23, Penguin

There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.

Herman Melville
Reality, Quality, World
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.55

As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Herman Melville
Inspirational, Life, Travel
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.12

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.

Herman Melville
Men, Profound, Way
Herman Melville (2016). “Bartleby, The Scrivener”, p.3, Herman Melville

We die, because we live.

Herman Melville
Life, Death, Dies
Herman Melville (1931). “Romances of Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Mopby-Dick, White-jacket, Israel Potter, Redburn”

It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.

Herman Melville
Wisdom, Infinite, Subjects
Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, G. Thomas Tanselle (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.253, Northwestern University Press

Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?

Herman Melville
Quality, Gone, Literature

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.

Herman Melville
Perfection, Humanity, Would Be
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1031, Delphi Classics

The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind; but not the march of Love.

Herman Melville
Mind, May, March
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1009, Delphi Classics

Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.

Herman Melville
Hope, Struggle, Soul

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