“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
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
“In certain matters, some sailors even in mature life remain unsophisticated enough. But a young seafarer of the disposition of our athletic… — 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
“There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship indolently rolls;… — 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
“I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man that he should live out the life-time of his God?” — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In… — 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
As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed —… — 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
“In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“How dost thou know that some entire, living, thinking thing may not be invisibly and uninterpenetratingly standing precisely where thou now standest;… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great… — 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
“Huge hills and mountains of casks on casks were piled upon her wharves, and side by side the world-wandering whale ships lay… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth and go to the Soup Societies.… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Looking into his eyes, you seemed to see there the yet lingering images of those thousand-fold perils he had calmly confronted through… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Would to God these blessed calms would last. But the mingled, mingling threads of life are woven by warp and woof: calms… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Best followed now is this life, by hurrying, like itself, to a close. Few things remain. He was repulsed in efforts after… — 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
