For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The American, who up to the present day, has evinced, in Literature, the largest brain with the largest heart, that man is… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
It is not the purpose of literature to purvey news. For news consult the Almanac de Gotha. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Of all human events, perhaps, the publication of a first volume of verses is the most insignificant; but though a matter of… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
As in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthy rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled and thrown out; so,… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable socialities are in me. I would sit down and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The further our civilization advances upon its present lines so much the cheaper sort of thing does "fame" become, especially of the… — 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
Nearly all literature, in one sense, is made up of guide-books. Old ones tell us the ways our fathers went, through the… — 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 write it; for it is a thing most sorrowful, nay shocking, to expose the fall of valour in the soul. Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be;… — 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 down stairs five miles or more; and if he don't attain the bottom, why all the lead in Galena can't fashion the plummet that will. I'm not talking of Mr Emerson now -but of the whole… — 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 sea. Wrapped, for that interval, in darkness myself, I but the better saw the redness, the madness, the ghastliness of others. The continual sight of the fiend shapes before me, capering half in smoke and half… — 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 loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of 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 the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color, and at the… — 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 not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don't believe it also. But when a man's religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this… — 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 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 then, with weary patience, cleansed ourselves from its defilements, and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul; hardly is this done, when-There she blows!-the ghost is spouted up, and away we sail to… — Herman Melville Copy Share
