“Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this world's vast bulk its small but valuable… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“It was a black and hooded head; and hanging there in the midst of so intense a calm, it seemed the Sphynx’s… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
O Death, the Consecrator! Nothing so sanctifies a name As to be written--Dead. Nothing so wins a life from blame, So covers… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“The weaver-god, he weaves; and by that weaving is he deafened, that he hears no mortal voice; and by that humming, we,… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“I shall leave the world, I feel, with more satisfaction for having come to know you. Knowing you persuades me more than… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Yes, there is death in this business of whaling—a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The most mighty of nature's laws is this, that out of Death she brings Life. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
In childhood, death stirred me not; in middle age, it pursued me like a prowling bandit on the road; now, grown an… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“In those jaws of swift destruction, like another Jonah (by which name they indeed called him), bustles a little withered old man,… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief.” — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“It needs scarcely to be told, with what feelings, on the eve of a Nantucket voyage, I regarded those marble tablets, and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
That mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true--not true, or undeveloped. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Only one sweeter end can readily be recalled—the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey in the crotch of a… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Surely no mere mortal who has at all gone down into himself will ever pretend that his slightest thought or act solely… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
None but a good man is really a living man, and the more good any man does, the more he really lives.… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale's there? It is the same he died with, only some of the longer… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Some dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Now then, thought I, unconsciously rolling up the sleeve of my frock, here goes for a cool, collected dive at death and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.” — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“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… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“(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… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“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… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“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… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“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… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
