--- title: "2 Blue ocean Quotes By Herman Melville" description: "2 Blue ocean quotes by Herman Melville. Plus more from Herman Melville and more Blue ocean sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/herman-melville-162_blue_roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-ro_1040794.jpg" --- > [Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-roll-ten-thousand-blubber/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/herman-melville-162_blue_roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-ro_1040794.jpg) > [“Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly admit that I kept but sorry guard. With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I- being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude-…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/let-me-make-a-clean-breast-of-it-here-and-frankly-admit-that-i-kept/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/94c/herman-melville-162_blue-ocean_let-me-make-a-clean-breast-of-it-here-an_1129262.jpg) ## Other authors on Blue ocean ## More by Herman Melville > [“and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/and-man-though-idiotic-and-knowing-not-what-he-does-yet-full-of-the/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“But were the coming narrative to reveal in any instance, the complete abasement of poor Starbuck's fortitude, scarce might I have the heart to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/but-were-the-coming-narrative-to-reveal-in-any-instance-the-complete/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“(On Ralph Waldo Emerson)I love all men who dive. Any fish can swim near the surface, but it takes a great whale to go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/on-ralph-waldo-emerson-i-love-all-men-who-dive-any-fish-can-swim-near/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“So seemed it to me, as I stood at her helm, and for long hours silently guided the way of this fire-ship on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/so-seemed-it-to-me-as-i-stood-at-her-helm-and-for-long-hours-silently/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“the only real owner of anything is its commander;”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/the-only-real-owner-of-anything-is-its-commander/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/consider-the-subtleness-of-the-sea-how-its-most-dreaded-creatures/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/is-it-that-by-its-indefiniteness-it-shadows-forth-the-heartless-voids/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“Now, as I before hinted, I have no objection to any person's religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/now-as-i-before-hinted-i-have-no-objection-to-any-person-s-religion/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/let-america-first-praise-mediocrity-even-in-her-children-before-she/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [Only the man who says no is free](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/only-the-man-who-says-no-is-free/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/beneath-those-stars-is-a-universe-of-gliding-monsters/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this world's vast bulk its small but valuable sperm; and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/yet-this-is-life-for-hardly-have-we-mortals-by-long-toilings/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [I never fancied broiling fowls; - though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will speak more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/i-never-fancied-broiling-fowls-though-once-broiled-judiciously/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/war-should-be-carried-on-like-a-monsoon-one-changeless-determination/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [Genius is full of trash.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/genius-is-full-of-trash/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/#itemlist", "name": "2 Blue ocean Quotes By Herman Melville", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Herman Melville" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-roll-ten-thousand-blubber/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/herman-melville-162_blue_roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-ro_1040794.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/herman-melville-162_blue_roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-ro_1040794.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/herman-melville-162_blue_roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-ro_1040794.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain.” — Herman Melville", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly admit that I kept but sorry guard. With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I- being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude- how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whaleships' standing orders, \"Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time.\" And let me in this place movingly admonish you, ye ship-owners of Nantucket! Beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with lean brow and hollow eye; given to unseasonable meditativeness...: your whales must be seen before they can be killed; and this sunken-eyed young Platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world, and never make you one pint of sperm the richer. Nor are these monitions at all unneeded. For nowadays, the whale-fishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic, melancholy, and absent-minded young men, disgusted with the corking care of earth, and seeking sentiment in tar and blubber. Childe Harold not unfrequently perches himself upon the mast-head of some luckless disappointed whale-ship, and in moody phrase ejaculates:- \"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain. \" ... \"Why, thou monkey,\" said a harpooneer to one of these lads, \"we've been cruising now hard upon three years, and thou hast not raised a whale yet. Whales are scarce as hen's teeth whenever thou art up here.\" Perhaps they were; or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in the far horizon; but lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly-discovered, uprising fin of some undiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it. In this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came; becomes diffused through time and space; like Crammer's sprinkled Pantheistic ashes, forming at last a part of every shore the round globe over. There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gentle rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or hand an inch; slip your hold at all; and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps, at midday, in the fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists! ”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Herman Melville" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/let-me-make-a-clean-breast-of-it-here-and-frankly-admit-that-i-kept/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/94c/herman-melville-162_blue-ocean_let-me-make-a-clean-breast-of-it-here-an_1129262.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/94c/herman-melville-162_blue-ocean_let-me-make-a-clean-breast-of-it-here-an_1129262.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/94c/herman-melville-162_blue-ocean_let-me-make-a-clean-breast-of-it-here-an_1129262.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly admit that I kept but sorry guard. With the problem of…” — Herman Melville", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/", "name": "Blue ocean Quotes by Herman Melville", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/herman-melville-162_blue_roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-ro_1040794.jpg" }, "description": "2 Blue ocean quotes by Herman Melville. Plus more from Herman Melville and more Blue ocean sayings from other authors.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Blue Ocean", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Herman Melville", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-ocean/herman-melville/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```