Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease. — 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
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
“Strangest problems of life seem clearing; but clouds sweep between--Is my journey’s end coming?” — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
It is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realise the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. — 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
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
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
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
“Here some one thrust these cards into these old hands of mine, swears that I must play them, and no others. And… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“I felt all the easier; a stone was rolled away from my heart. Besides, all the days I should now live would… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board… — 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
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… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
We may have civilized bodies and yet barbarous souls. We are blind to the real sights of this world; deaf to its… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“For all his old age, and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“many is the time the poor fellows, just buttoning the necks of their clean frocks, are startled by the cry of "There… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Oh! how immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts? Here now ’s the very dreaded symbol of… — 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
“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
“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
“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
Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of… — 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
There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled. — 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
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
“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
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
“Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief.” — 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
