A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one. — 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
Mystery is in the morning, and mystery in the night, and the beauty of mystery is everywhere; but still the plain truth… — 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
One trembles to think of that mysterious thing in the soul, which seems to acknowledge no human jurisdiction, but in spite of… — 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
But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The pleasure of leaving home, care-free, with no concern but to enjoy, has also as a pendant the pleasure of coming back… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
The ancients of the ideal description, instead of trying to turn their impracticable chimeras, as does the modern dreamer, into social and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the… — 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
Though essaying but a sportive sail, I was driven from my course by a blast re sistless; and ill-provided, young, and bowed… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of… — 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
