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Herman Melville Quotes about Death

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We die, because we live.

We die, because we live.

Herman Melville
Life, Death, Dies
Herman Melville (1931). “Romances of Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Mopby-Dick, White-jacket, Israel Potter, Redburn”

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

In childhood, death stirred me not; in middle age, it pursued me like a prowling bandit on the road; now, grown an old man, it boldly leads the way, and ushers me on.

Herman Melville
Death, Men, Childhood
Herman Melville (1855). “Mardi: And a Voyage Thither”, p.347

We die of too much life.

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

None but a good man is really a living man, and the more good any man does, the more he really lives. All the rest is death, or belongs to it.

Herman Melville
Life, Death, Men

O Death, the Consecrator! Nothing so sanctifies a name As to be written--Dead. Nothing so wins a life from blame, So covers it from wrath and shame, As doth the burial-bed.

Herman Melville
Death, Winning, Names

For my part I love sleepy fellows, and the more ignorant the better. Damn your wide-awake and knowing chaps. As for sleepiness, itis one of the noblest qualities of humanity. There is something sociable about it, too. Think of those sensible & sociable millions of good fellows all taking a good long friendly snooze together, under the sod--no quarrels, no imaginary grievances, no envies, heart-burnings, & thinking how much better that other chap is off--none of this: but all equally free-&-easy, they sleep away & reel off their nine knots an hour, in perfect amity.

Herman Melville
Death, Heart, Sleep

Some dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows ought to be indulged.

Herman Melville
Death, Men, Dying
Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.449

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