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Herman Melville Quotes - Page 9

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Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them.

Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them.

Herman Melville
Wise, Men, Recognition
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.1605, e-artnow

God is liberal of color; so should man be.

Herman Melville
Men, Color, Should
Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, G. Thomas Tanselle (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.423, Northwestern University Press

I am past scorching; not easily can’st thou scorch a scar.

Herman Melville
Past, Scar, Scorching
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.456

The stillness of the calm is awful. His voice begins to grow strange and portentous. He feels it in him like something swallowed too big for the esophagus. It keeps up a sort of involuntary interior humming in him, like a live beetle. His cranium is a dome full of reverberations. The hollows of his very bones are as whispering galleries. He is afraid to speak loud, lest he be stunned; like the man in the bass drum.

Herman Melville
Men, Voice, Whispering
Herman Melville (1849). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.21

The Navy is the asylum for the perverse, the home of the unfortunate. Here the sons of adversity meet the children of calamity, and here the children of calamity meet the offspring of sin.

Herman Melville
Children, Home, Adversity
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.4823, Delphi Classics

Is he mad? Anyway there's something on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks.

Herman Melville
Mad, Mind, Cracks
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.87, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

Everyone knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything cooly is to do it genteelly.

Herman Melville
People, Composure, Knows

Our souls belong to our bodies, not our bodies to our souls.

Herman Melville
Soul, Body
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.212

It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open.

Herman Melville
Writing, Literature, Impossible
Herman Melville (2015). “Pierre or The Ambiguities: Works of Melville”, p.254, 谷月社

And the visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.

Herman Melville
World, Spheres, Invisible
Moby Dick ch. 42 (1851)

Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.

Herman Melville
True Friend, Relation, Reciprocal
Herman Melville (2006). “Selected Poems (Melville, Herman)”, p.138, Penguin

Nothing can lift the heart of man like manhood in a fellow man.

Herman Melville
Heart, Men, Fellow Man
Herman Melville, Robert C. Ryan, Hershel Parker (2009). “Published Poems: The Writings of Herman Melville”, p.77, Northwestern University Press

At banquets surfeit not, but fill; partake, and retire; and eat not again till you crave.

Herman Melville
Eating, Banquets, Retiring
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.298

Beware the People weeping When they bare the iron hand.

Herman Melville
Hands, Iron, People
Herman Melville (2006). “Selected Poems (Melville, Herman)”, p.90, Penguin

Let us waive that agitated national topic, as to whether such multitudes of foreign poor should be landed on our American shores;let us waive it, with the one only thought, that if they can get here, they have God's right to come.

Herman Melville
Topics, Poor, Should
Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1380, Delphi Classics

I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way--either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.

Herman Melville
Views, Hands, Knowing
Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.25, Cosimo, Inc.

In our own hearts, we mold the whole world's hereafters; and in our own hearts we fashion our own gods.

Herman Melville
God, Fashion, Heart
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.374

Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands.

Herman Melville
Land, Sky, Nurse
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.555, Velvet Element Books

The shadows of things are greater than themselves; and the more exaggerated the shadow, the more unlike the substance.

Herman Melville
Shadow, Substance, Greater
Herman Melville (2015). “Mardi: and A Voyage Thither: Works of Melville”, p.279, 谷月社

There is a woe that is wisdom, a woe that is madness.

Herman Melville
Wisdom, Woe, Madness

Never joke at funerals, or during business transactions.

Herman Melville
Funeral, Transactions, Jokes
Herman Melville (2016). “Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile and Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter”, p.51, Courier Dover Publications

It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.

Herman Melville
Men, Secret, Looks
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.105, Velvet Element Books

All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys.

Herman Melville
War, Boys, Conflict
Herman Melville (2015). “Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War: Works of Melville”, p.13, 谷月社

In truth, a mature man who uses hair oil, unless medicinally, that man has probably got a quoggy spot in him somewhere.

Herman Melville
Men, Hair, Oil
Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.124, Velvet Element Books

beauty is like piety--you cannot run and read it; tranquility and constancy, with, now-a-days, an easy chair, are needed.

Herman Melville
Beauty, Running, Tranquility
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.2763, e-artnow

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