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Herman Melville Quotes - Page 5

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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.

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.

Herman Melville
Wise, Husband, Men
Herman Melville (1849). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.62

To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain.

Herman Melville
Pain, Pity, Sensitive
Herman Melville (2012). “Bartleby and Benito Cereno”, p.18, Courier Corporation

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

Herman Melville
Poor, Feds, Criticize

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

Herman Melville
Communication, Men, Thinking
"White-Jacket" by Herman Melville, (Ch. 64), 1850.

What is an atheist, but one who does not, or will not, see in the universe a ruling principle of love; and what a misanthrope, but one who does not, or will not, see in man a ruling principle of kindness?

Herman Melville
Atheist, Kindness, Men
Herman Melville (1857). “The Confidence-man: His Masquerade”, p.220

An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.

Herman Melville
Happiness, Success, Fear
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.126, Velvet Element Books

Fame is an accident; merit a thing absolute.

Herman Melville
Merit, Fame, Accidents
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.93

There is nothing so slipperily alluring as sadness; we become sad in the first place by having nothing stirring to do; we continue in it, because we have found a snug sofa at last.

Herman Melville
Sad, Lasts, Firsts
Herman Melville (1852). “Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities”, p.352

We may have civilized bodies and yet barbarous souls.

Herman Melville
Soul, Body, May
1849 Redburn, ch.58.

Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.

Herman Melville
Stars, Monsters, Gliding

There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.

Herman Melville
Sweet, Sea, Soul
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.535, Velvet Element Books

Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.

Herman Melville
Sleep, Thinking, Commandments
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.129, Cosimo, Inc.

All Profound things, and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence.

Herman Melville
Profound, Silence, Emotion
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.2918, Delphi Classics

A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

Herman Melville
College, Whales, Yale
Moby Dick ch. 24 (1851)

Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.

Herman Melville
Mother, Lying, Soul
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.460

There are doubts, sir, which, if man have them, it is not man that can solve them.

Herman Melville
Men, Doubt, Solve
Herman Melville (1857). “The Confidence-man: His Masquerade”, p.339

The pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bearthe earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invokedfor favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

Herman Melville
Wrath, Wind, Storm
Herman Melville (2015). “Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, p.54, Powell Publications, LLC

The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true-- not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe.

Herman Melville
Ocean, Book, Dark
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.293, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Me thinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me.

Herman Melville
Spiritual, Thinking, Air
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.40

There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.

Herman Melville
Balloons, Eating, Immortality
Herman Melville (1849). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.201

I would prefer not to.

Herman Melville
Ego
"Bartleby the Scrivener" (1856)

My body is but the lees of my better being.

Herman Melville
Body
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.40

It is against the will of God that the East should be Christianized.

Herman Melville
East, Christianity, Should
Herman Melville, Howard C. Horsford, Lynn Horth (1989). “Journals”, p.81, Northwestern University Press

Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

Herman Melville
Doubt, Atheism, Literature
1851 Moby Dick, ch.7.

The entire merit of a man can never be made known; nor the sum of his demerits, if he have them. We are only known by our names; as letters sealed up, we but read each other's superscriptions.

Herman Melville
Character, Men, Names
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.874, Delphi Classics

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