Authors:

Herman Melville Quotes - Page 4

All Quotes Adversity Age Art Atheism Beauty Character Charity Children Christianity Cooking Country Courage Creativity Death Democracy Devil Doubt Earth Ego Evil Failure Fame Fate Fear Feelings Fighting Food Genius Giving God Greatness Greek Grief Happiness Hate Heart Heaven Home Honor Horror Human Nature Humanity Inspirational Joy Judging Knowledge Laughter Life Literature Love Lying Madness Memories Money Morning Mountain Nature Pain Past Prayer Prejudice Purpose Quality Reality Religion Running Sailing Silence Sin Skins Slavery Sleep Smoking Son Sorrow Soul Spring Success Suffering Summer Terror Travel Truth Virtue War Water Wife Wine Wisdom Work Writing Youth
In a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.

In a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.

Herman Melville
Friendship, Faithful, Acquaintance
Herman Melville (2012). “Mardi: And A Voyage Thither (Annotated Complete Edition)”, p.149, Jazzybee Verlag

Silence is the only Voice of our God.

Herman Melville
Change, Voice, Silence
"Pierre: or, The Ambiguities" by Herman Melville, (Bk. XXV, ch. 3), 1852.

Many sensible things banished from high life find an asylum among the mob.

Herman Melville
Asylums, Sensible
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket: or, The world in a man-of-war”, p.41

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Herman Melville
Beauty, Judging, Handsome
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1211, Delphi Classics

We may have civilized bodies and yet barbarous souls. We are blind to the real sights of this world; deaf to its voice; and dead to its death. And not till we know, that one grief outweighs ten thousand joys will we become what Christianity is striving to make us.

Herman Melville
Death, Real, Grief
Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, G. Thomas Tanselle (1969). “Redburn: Works of Herman Melville Volume Four”, p.293, Northwestern University Press

Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

Herman Melville
Brother, Ocean, Keys
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.9

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Herman Melville
Depression, Strong, Hands
Herman Melville (2002). “Moby-Dick: A Picture Voyage : an Abridged and Illustrated Edition of the Original Classic”, p.13, Spinner Publications

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

Herman Melville
Order, Literature, Method
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.299, Cosimo, Inc.

If you begin the day with a laugh, you may, nevertheless, end it with a sob and a sigh.

Herman Melville
Laughing, May, Pessimism
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1524, Delphi Classics

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.

Herman Melville
Time, Insomnia, Men
1851 Moby Dick, ch.29.

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

Herman Melville
Laughter, Adventure, Laughing
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.163

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.

Herman Melville
Patriotic, Blood, Usa
Herman Melville (1963). “The Works of Herman Melville”

True Work is the necessity of poor humanity's earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure. Besides, 99 hundredths of all the work done in the world is either foolish and unnecessary, or harmful and wicked.

Herman Melville
Work, Humanity, Wicked
Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.464, Northwestern University Press

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.

Herman Melville
Space, Dumb, Faces
Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.69, Herman Melville

Poor people make a very poor business of it when they try to seem rich.

Herman Melville
People, Deception, Trying
Herman Melville (2015). “Redburn's First Voyage: Works of Melville”, p.17, 谷月社

Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.

Herman Melville
Love, Friendship, Sight

One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the morning.

Herman Melville
Wisdom, Morning, Men
Herman Melville (2016). “Bartleby, The Scrivener”, p.26, Herman Melville

They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.

Herman Melville
Life, Success, Work

For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.

Herman Melville
Lying, Ocean, Men
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.308, Velvet Element Books

for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men

Herman Melville
Men, Earth, Madness
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.315, Cosimo, Inc.

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas.

Herman Melville
Sea, Sail, Forbidden
Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.15, Ballantine Books

I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations, no matter how comical.

Herman Melville
Religious, Matter, Cherish

People think that if a man has undergone any hardship, he should have a reward; but for my part, if I have done the hardest possible day's work, and then come to sit down in a corner and eat my supper comfortably -why, then I don't think I deserve any reward for my hard day's work -for am I not now at peace? Is not my supper good?

Herman Melville
Peace, Food, Men
Herman Melville (1967). “Moby-Dick: An authoritative text”, W. W. Norton & Company

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

Herman Melville
Book, Writing, Men
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.5186, Delphi Classics

A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing.

Herman Melville
Happiness, Laughter, Laughing
"The Complete Works of Herman Melville".

You May Also Like: