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Herman Melville Quotes - Page 6

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The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.

The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.

Herman Melville
Men, Infidelity, Vote
Herman Melville (1982). “Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi”, p.699, Library of America

There never was a great man yet who spent all his life inland.

Herman Melville
Men, Sailing, Nautical
Herman Melville (2016). “White Jacket”, p.292, Herman Melville

As in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthy rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled and thrown out; so, in digging in one's soul for the fine gold of genius, much dullness and common-place is first brought to light.

Herman Melville
Creativity, Light, Soul
Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.327, Herman Melville

Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.

Herman Melville
Rain, Men, Rivers
Herman Melville (2015). “Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, p.5, Powell Publications, LLC

There is something wrong about the man who wants help. There is somewhere a deep defect, a want, in brief, a need, a crying need, somewhere about that man.

Herman Melville
Men, Needs, Want

All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.

Herman Melville
Thinking, Wind, Sea
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.104

All things that God would have us do are hard for us to do--remember that--and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade.

Herman Melville
God, Remember, Endeavour
Herman Melville (1952). “Moby Dick: Or, The Whale”

Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.

Herman Melville
Heaven, Needs, Pagan
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.82

Yet habit - strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?

Herman Melville
Strange, Habit, Advocating
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.267

I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.

Herman Melville
Thinking, Prejudice, Should
Herman Melville (2015). “The Confidence-Man: Works of Melville”, p.176, 谷月社

Immortality is but ubiquity in time.

Herman Melville
Ubiquity, Immortality
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.173

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Herman Melville
War, Sharks, Sea
Herman Melville (2015). “Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, p.438, Powell Publications, LLC

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 Melville
Past, Tyrants, Wife
Herman Melville (2000). “White-jacket, Or, The World in a Man-of-war”, p.152, Oxford University Press, USA

contempt is as frequently produced at first sight as love.

Herman Melville
Love, Sight, Firsts
Herman Melville (1847). “Omoo, a narrative of adventures in the south seas”, p.77

And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my fog with a heavenly ray. And for this I thank God; for all have doubts; many deny; but doubts or denials, few along with them, have intuitions. Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye.

Herman Melville
Eye, Men, Fog
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.416, Velvet Element Books

Students of history are horror-struck at the massacres of old; but in the shambles, men are being murdered to-day.

Herman Melville
Men, Students, Horror
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.241

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

Herman Melville
Honor, Dishonor, Flogging
Herman Melville (1970). “White-jacket: Or, The World in a Man-of-war”, p.366, Northwestern University Press

Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!

Herman Melville
Running, Heart, Iron
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.161

Benevolent desires, after passing a certain point, can not undertake their own fulfillment without incurring the risk of evils beyond those sought to be remedied.

Herman Melville
Evil, Risk, Desire
Herman Melville (2015). “Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War: Works of Melville”, p.201, 谷月社

I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.

Herman Melville
Christian, Kindness, Trying
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.37, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

So, cutting the lashing of the waterproof match keg, after many failures Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then stretching it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-bearer of this forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.

Herman Melville
Hope, Heart, Cutting
Herman Melville, General Press (2016). “Moby Dick”, p.242, GENERAL PRESS

You must have plenty of sea-room to tell the truth in.

Herman Melville
Sea, Rooms, Telling The Truth
Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, G. Thomas Tanselle (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.459, Northwestern University Press

...that one most perilous and long voyage ended, only begins a second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on, for ever and for aye. Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness of all earthly effort.

Herman Melville
Long, Effort, Voyages
Herman Melville (2002). “Moby-Dick: A Picture Voyage : an Abridged and Illustrated Edition of the Original Classic”, p.42, Spinner Publications

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

Herman Melville
Dream, Blessing, Whales

See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.

Herman Melville
Prejudice, Grows
Herman Melville (2006). “Moby Dick the Whale Volume I EasyRead Ed”, p.75, ReadHowYouWant.com

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