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Herman Melville Quotes - Page 8

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The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.

The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.

Herman Melville
Evil, Worst, Officers
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1765, Delphi Classics

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it.

Herman Melville
Book, Writing, Literature
Moby Dick ch. 104 (1851)

Nature has not implanted any power in man that was not meant to be exercised at times, though too often our powers have been abused. The privilege, inborn and inalienable, that every man has of dying himself, and inflicting death upon another, was not given to us without a purpose. These are the last resources of an insulted and unendurable existence.

Herman Melville
Men, Dying, Lasts
Herman Melville (1970). “White-jacket: Or, The World in a Man-of-war”, p.280, Northwestern University Press

Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

Herman Melville
Inspirational, Funny, Years
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.1, Velvet Element Books

When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the "big canoe" of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.

Herman Melville
Beach, Betrayal, Hate
Herman Melville (2017). “The Complete Works of Herman Melville: Adventure Classics, Sea Tales, Philosophical Works, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays: Moby-Dick, Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, Pierre, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales, John Marr and Other Sailors…”, p.28, e-artnow

In glades they meet skull after skull Where pine cones lay-the rusted gun, Green shoes full of bones, the mouldering coat And cuddled up skeleton; And scores of such. Some start as in dreams, And comrades lost bemoan; By the edge of those wilds Stonewall had charged- But the year and the Man were gone.

Herman Melville
Dream, War, Gun
Herman Melville, Douglas Robillard (2000). “The Poems of Herman Melville”, p.102, Kent State University Press

Both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy.

Herman Melville
Grief, Joy, Ancestry
Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, G. Thomas Tanselle (1988). “Moby Dick, Or The Whale: Volume 6, Scholarly Edition”, p.464, Northwestern University Press

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 all this; and then turn to this green, gentle , and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?

Herman Melville
Sea, Land, Water
Herman Melville (2012). “Moby Dick (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)”, p.301, Jazzybee Verlag

Faith and philosophy are air, but events are brass.

Herman Melville
Philosophy, Air, Events
Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.366, Herman Melville

All of us have monarchs and sages for kinsmen; nay, angels and archangels for cousins; since in antediluvian days, the sons of God did verily wed with our mothers, the irresistible daughters of Eve. Thus all generations are blended: and heaven and earth of one kin: the hierarchies of seraphs in the uttermost skies; the thrones and principalities in the zodiac; the shades that roam throughout space; the nations and families, flocks and folds of the earth; one and all, brothers in essence-oh, be we then brothers indeed! All things form but one whole.

Herman Melville
Daughter, Mother, Cousin
Herman Melville (2012). “Mardi: And A Voyage Thither (Annotated Complete Edition)”, p.21, Jazzybee Verlag

Books, gentlemen, are a species of men, and introduced to them you circulate in the "very best society" that this world can furnish, without the intolerable infliction of "dressing" to go into it. In your shabbiest coat and cosiest slippers you may socially chat even with the fastidious Earl of Chesterfield, and lounging under a tree enjoy the divinest intimacy with my late lord of Verulam.

Herman Melville
Reading, Book, Men
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.4516, Delphi Classics

Are not half our lives spent in reproaches for foregone actions, of the true nature and consequences of which we were wholly ignorant at the time?

Herman Melville
Ignorant, Half, Action
Herman Melville, Tyrus Hillway (1973). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.380, Rowman & Littlefield

Think of it. To go down to posterity as a 'man who lived among the cannibals.'

Herman Melville
Men, Thinking, Cannibal
Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.193, Northwestern University Press

The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!

Herman Melville
Believe, Men, Roots
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.5, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught—nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!

Herman Melville
Book, Cash, May
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.159, Velvet Element Books

Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.

Herman Melville
Stars, Moving, Heart
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.370, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

Woe to him who seeks to please rather than appall.

Herman Melville
Woe, Castaway, Please
Herman Melville (2012). “Moby Dick (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)”, p.60, Jazzybee Verlag

We die of too much life.

Herman Melville
Life, Death, Too Much
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.315

Great towers take time to construct.

Herman Melville
Patience, Persistence, Towers
Herman Melville (2015). “Mardi: and A Voyage Thither: Works of Melville”, p.176, 谷月社

Know, thou, that the lines that live are turned out of a furrowed brow.

Herman Melville
Lines, Brows, Knows
Herman Melville (2012). “Mardi: And A Voyage Thither (Annotated Complete Edition)”, p.500, Jazzybee Verlag

Soldier or sailor, the fighting man is but a fiend; and the staff and body-guard of the Devil musters many a baton.

Herman Melville
War, Fighting, Men
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket: or, The world in a man-of-war”, p.304

The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise extirpated the greater portion of the Red race. Civilization is gradually sweeping from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, and at the same time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers.

Herman Melville
Civilization, Race, Unhappy
Herman Melville (1982). “Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi”, p.230, Library of America

The idea of Jehovah was born here... Out of the rude elements of the insignificant thoughts thoughts that are in all men, they reared the transcendent conception of a God.

Herman Melville
Men, Ideas, Rude

Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning.

Herman Melville
Brother, Crazy, Boys
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.9

To treat of human actions is to deal wholly with second causes.

Herman Melville
Deeds, Causes, Action
Herman Melville, Robert C. Ryan, Hershel Parker (2009). “Published Poems: The Writings of Herman Melville”, p.755, Northwestern University Press

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