Herman Melville Quotes about Literature

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Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

Herman Melville

Literature, Edges, Ragged

Herman Melville (2009). “Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales”, p.312, OUP Oxford

Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?

Herman Melville

Quality, Gone, Literature

Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, - for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it - not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.

Herman Melville

Strength, Literature, Way

Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.196, Northwestern University Press

To be called one thing, is oftentimes to be another.

Herman Melville

Literature, One Thing

Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.898, Delphi Classics

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

Herman Melville

Order, Literature, Method

Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.299, Cosimo, Inc.

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.

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)

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

To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment.

Herman Melville

Left Handers, Literature, Lefties

Herman Melville (1982). “Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi”, p.520, Library of America

There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too; and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is.

Herman Melville

Sorrow, Literature, World

Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.2852, Delphi Classics

There is all of the difference in the world between paying and being paid.

Herman Melville

Differences, Literature, World

Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.5, Velvet Element Books

Of all human events, perhaps, the publication of a first volume of verses is the most insignificant; but though a matter of no moment to the world, it is still of some concern to the author.

Herman Melville

Poetry, Events, Literature

Herman Melville, Robert C. Ryan, Hershel Parker (2009). “Published Poems: The Writings of Herman Melville”, p.443, Northwestern University Press

The further our civilization advances upon its present lines so much the cheaper sort of thing does "fame" become, especially of the literary sort. This species of "fame" a waggish acquaintance says can be manufactured to order, and sometimes is so manufactured.

Herman Melville

Civilization, Order, Literature

Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.492, Northwestern University Press