Sea Quotes by Herman Melville

Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.

— Herman Melville

The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul.

— Herman Melville

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas.

— Herman Melville

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

— Herman Melville

Let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon…

— Herman Melville

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale... from hell's heart I stab at thee.

— Herman Melville

You must have plenty of sea-room to tell the truth in.

— Herman Melville

“[T]hen all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.”

— Herman Melville

Implacable I, the implacable Sea; Implacable most when most I smile serene- Pleased, not appeased, by myriad wrecks in me.

— Herman Melville

Of all nature's animated kingdoms, fish are the most unchristian, inhospitable, heartless, and cold-blooded of creatures.

— Herman Melville

The man's (a heathen south sea islander) a human being, just as I am; he has just as much reason to fear…

— Herman Melville

There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the…

— Herman Melville

All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the…

— Herman Melville

As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on…

— Herman Melville

An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.

— Herman Melville

There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear - the city of London and the South Seas.

— Herman Melville

Father Mapple paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit's bows, folded his large brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed…

— Herman Melville

At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a sharp, cold Christmas; and as…

— Herman Melville

Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship's decks,…

— Herman Melville

Start her, now; give 'em the long and strong stroke, Tashtego. Start her, Tash, my boy-start her, all; but keep cool, keep…

— Herman Melville

“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

But the past is passed; why moralize upon it? Forget it. See, yon bright son has forgotten it all, and the blue…

— Herman Melville

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden…

— Herman Melville

Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go…

— Herman Melville

If I had been downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart that I did but half…

— Herman Melville

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever i find…

— Herman Melville

However baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may…

— Herman Melville

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find…

— Herman Melville

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden…

— Herman Melville

“Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of…

— Herman Melville

“But though, to landsmen in general, the native inhabitants of the seas have ever regarded with emotions unspeakably unsocial and repelling; though…

— Herman Melville

At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect.

— Herman Melville

A ship is a bit of terra firma cut off from the main; it is a state in itself; and the captain…

— Herman Melville

There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul…

— Herman Melville

No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider,…

— Herman Melville

We are off! The courses and topsails are set: the coral-hung anchor swings from the bow: and together, the three royals are…

— Herman Melville

There's magic in the water that draws all men away form the land, that leads them over hills, down creeks and streams…

— Herman Melville

Father Mapple uplifted his closed eyes, and offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed to be kneeling at the bottom…

— Herman Melville

For in tremendous extremities human souls are like drowning men; well enough they know they are in peril; well enough they know…

— Herman Melville

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