Memorable Quotes and quotations from Herman MelvilleHerman Melville US novelist & sailor (1819 - 1891)Herman Melville - - Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed. Herman Melville - - A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things. Herman Melville - Moby Dick - Were this world an endless pain, and by sailing eastward we could forever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage. Herman Melville - Moby Dick - For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness. Herman Melville - - We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. Herman Melville - Billy Budd, Sailor - Toward the accomplishment of an aim, which in wantonness of atrocity would seem to partake of the insane, he will direct a cool judgement, sagacious and sound. These men are madmen, and of the most dangerous sort. Herman Melville - Moby Dick - Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes. Herman Melville - - Where does the violet tint end and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blending enter into the other. So with sanity and insanity. Herman Melville - Moby Dick - Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shores our bed and eats at our own table. Herman Melville - - It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Herman Melville - - From without, no wonderful effect is wrought within ourselves, unless some interior, responding wonder meets it. Herman Melville - - He who has never failed somewhere. . . that man can not be great. |
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