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Herman Melville Quotes about War

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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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray that the great historic tragedy of our time may not have been enacted without instructing our whole beloved country through terror and pity; and may fulfillment verify in the end those expectations which kindle the bards of Progress and Humanity.

Herman Melville
Country, War, Expectations
Herman Melville (1866). “Battle-pieces and aspects of the war [poems].”, p.272

War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.

Herman Melville
Determination, War, Monsoons
Herman Melville (2016). “Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile and Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter”, p.68, Courier Dover Publications

Passion, and passion in its profoundest, is not a thing demanding a palatial stage whereon to play its part. Down among the groundlings, among the beggars and rakers of the garbage, profound passion is enacted. And the circumstances that provoke it, however trivial or mean, are no measure of its power. In the present instance the stage is a scrubbed gun deck, and one of the external provocations a man-of-war's-man's spilled soup.

Herman Melville
War, Mean, Passion
Herman Melville (2016). “Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories”, p.177, Penguin

All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys, The champions and enthusiasts of the state: Turbid ardors and vain joys Not barrenly abate-- Stimulants to the power mature, Preparatives of fate.

Herman Melville
War, Fate, Boys
Herman Melville, Douglas Robillard (2000). “The Poems of Herman Melville”, p.58, Kent State University Press

War being the greatest of evils, all its accessories necessarily partake of the same character.

Herman Melville
War, Character, Evil
Herman Melville (1850). “Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, During a Four Months' Residence in the Valley of the Marquesas”

Did all the lets and bars appear To every just or larger end, Whence should come the trust and cheer? Youth must its ignorant impulse lend-- Age finds place in the rear. All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys, The champions and enthusiasts of the state

Herman Melville
Cheer, War, Boys
Herman Melville (1866). “Battle-pieces and aspects of the war [poems].”, p.22

Standing navies, as well as standing armies, serve to keep alive the spirit of war even in the meek heart of peace. In its very embers and smoulderings, they nourish that fatal fire, and half-pay officers, as the priests of Mars, yet guard the temple, though no god be there.

Herman Melville
War, Heart, Army
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.247

In our man-of-war world, Life comes in at one gangway and Death goes overboard at the other. Under the man-of-war scourge, cursesmix with tears; and the sigh and the sob furnish the bass to the shrill octave of those who laugh to drown buried griefs of their own.

Herman Melville
War, Grief, Men
Herman Melville (2017). “THE TALES OF THE SEA - Premium Collection: 10 Maritime Novels & Adventure Classics in One Volume: Moby-Dick, Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, White-Jacket, Israel Potter, Billy Budd, Sailor, Benito Cereno & The Encantadas (Based on the Author's Experiences on a Cargo Ship & US Navy Service)”, p.1519, e-artnow

As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing,never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she is but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral.

Herman Melville
War, Men, Air
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.463

A chaplain is the minister of the Prince of Peace serving the host of the God of War--Mars. As such, he is as incongruous as a musket would be on the altar at Christmas. Why, then, is he there? Because he indirectly subserves the purpose attested by the cannon; because too he lends the sanction of the religion of the meek to that which practically is the abrogation of everything but brute Force.

Herman Melville
War, Would Be, Purpose
Herman Melville (2006). “Billy Budd, Sailor, and Other Stories”, p.75, Bantam Classics

Youth is the time when hearts are large, And stirring wars Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn To the blade it draws.

Herman Melville
War, Heart, Spirit
Herman Melville (2006). “Selected Poems (Melville, Herman)”, p.97, Penguin

Ah! the best righteousness of our man-of-war world seems but an unrealized ideal, after all; and those maxims which, in the hope of bringing about a Millennium, we busily teach to the heathen, we Christians ourselves disregard.

Herman Melville
Christian, War, Men
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.378

So long as a man-of-war exists, it must ever remain a picture of much that is tyrannical and repelling in human nature.

Herman Melville
War, Men, Long
Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.247

I will frankly confess that after passing a few weeks in the valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But, alas, since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of- war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.

Herman Melville
War, Men, Valleys

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