Thinking Quotes by Herman Melville

Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too…

— Herman Melville

Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.

— Herman Melville

I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.

— Herman Melville

The man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.

— Herman Melville

A man of true science... thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.

— Herman Melville

Time is made up of various ages; and each thinks its own a novelty.

— Herman Melville

Think of it. To go down to posterity as a 'man who lived among the cannibals.'

— Herman Melville

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into…

— Herman Melville

One trembles to think of that mysterious thing in the soul, which seems to acknowledge no human jurisdiction, but in spite of…

— 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

But when a man suspects any wrong it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter he insensibly strives…

— Herman Melville

...a man of true science uses few hard words, and those only when none other will answer his purpose; Where as the…

— Herman Melville

People think that if a man has undergone any hardship, he should have a reward; but for my part, if I have…

— Herman Melville

Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself;…

— Herman Melville

Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is…

— Herman Melville

We incline to think that God cannot explain His own secrets and that He would like a little information upon certain points…

— Herman Melville

“However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if…

— Herman Melville

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

The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy…

— Herman Melville

When I think of this life I have led; the desolation of solitude it has been; the masoned, walled-town of a Captain's…

— 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

For my part I love sleepy fellows, and the more ignorant the better. Damn your wide-awake and knowing chaps. As for sleepiness,…

— Herman Melville