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
For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head — 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
“that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and… — 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
There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled. — 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
“Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale, as an Arkansas duelist at his foe, blindly… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Seldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say to this world, unless forced to stammer out something by… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
What troops Of generous boys in happiness thus bred Saturnians through life's Tempe led, Went from the North and came from the… — 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
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads,… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The friendship of fine-hearted, generous boys, nurtured amid the romance-engendering comforts and elegancies of life, sometimes transcends the bounds of mere boyishness,… — 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
“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
There was about all the Romans a heroic tone peculiar to ancient life. Their virtues were great and noble, and these virtues… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras… — 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
That hour in the life of a man when first the help of humanity fails him, and he learns that in his… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“His three boats stove around him, and oars and men both whirling in the eddies; one captain, seizing the line-knife from his… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“If your banker breaks, you snap; if your apothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills, you die. True, you may… — 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
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
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
“I say, White-Jacket, d'ye mind me? there never was a very great man yet who spent all his life inland. A snuff… — 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
The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us… — 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
In placid hours well-pleased we dream Of many a brave unbodied scheme. But form to lend, pulsed life create, What unlike things… — 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
“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
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
“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 are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe… — 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
“and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.” — Herman Melville Copy Share
“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
“(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
“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
“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
“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
“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
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
“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
I never fancied broiling fowls; - though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will speak more… — Herman Melville Copy Share
War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim. — Herman Melville Copy Share
