A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
If you begin the day with a laugh, you may, nevertheless, end it with a sob and a sigh. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind; but not the march of Love. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
It may seem strange that of all men sailors should be tinkering at their last wills and testaments, but there are no… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Strange as it may seem, there is nothing in which a young and beautiful female appears to more advantage than in the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Our institutions have a potent digestion, and may in time convert and assimilate to good all elements thrown in, however originally alien. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Men there are, who having quite done with the world, all its merely worldly contents are become so far indifferent, that they… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; even the barest, ruggedest, most… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
That author who draws a character, even though to common view incongruous in its parts, as the flying-squirrel, and, at differentperiods, as… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Let us pray that the great historic tragedy of our time may not have been enacted without instructing our whole beloved country… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
To anybody who can hold the Present at its worth without being inappreciative of the Past, it may be forgiven, if to… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Where is there such an one who has not a thousand times been struck with a sort of infidel idea, that whatever… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
I don't know but a book in a man's brain is better off than a book bound in calf--at any rate it… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The grand principles of virtue and honor, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes, are the same the world over: and… — 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
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
Those peculiar social sensibilities nourished by our own peculiar political principles, while they enhancethe true dignity of a prosperous American, do but… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
However baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Books, gentlemen, are a species of men, and introduced to them you circulate in the "very best society" that this world can… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
We talk of the Turks, and abhor the cannibals; but may not some of them, go to heaven, before some of us? — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
If a well-constituted individual refrains from blazoning aught amiss or calamitous in his family, a nation in the like circumstance may without… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
And yet self-knowledge is thought by some not so easy. Who knows, my dear sir, but for a time you may have… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Whatever has made, or does make, or may make music, should be held sacred as the golden bridle-bit of the Shah of… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
I have no objection to any person's religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or… — 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
