Herman Melville Quotes - Page 16

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For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; even the barest, ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts, to welcome such glad-hearted visitants . . .

Herman Melville

Girl, Home, Dancing

Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.137, Velvet Element Books

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It is a thing which every sensible American should learn from every sensible Englishman, that glare and glitter, gimcracks and gewgaws, are not indispensable to domestic solacement.

Herman Melville

Glitter, Opulence, Glare

Herman Melville (2016). “Herman Melville The Dover Reader”, p.505, Courier Dover Publications

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Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.

Herman Melville

Ambition, Greatness, Disease

Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick”, p.107, Herman Melville

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Indolence is heaven 's ally here, And energy the child of hell : The Good Man pouring from his pitcher clear But brims the poisoned well.

Herman Melville

Children, Men, Heaven

Herman Melville (1991). “Selected Poems of Herman Melville”, p.145, Fordham Univ Press

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An indiscriminate distrust of human nature is the worst consequence of a miserable condition, whether brought about by innocence or guilt. And though want of suspicion more than want of sense, sometimes leads a man into harm; yet too much suspicion is as bad as too little sense.

Herman Melville

Men, Guilt, Too Much

Herman Melville (2015). “Israel Potter: Works of Melville”, p.39, 谷月社

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To certain temperaments, especially when previously agitated by any deep feeling, there is perhaps nothing more exasperating, andwhich sooner explodes all self-command, than the coarse, jeering insolence of a porter, cabman, or hack-driver.

Herman Melville

Self, Feelings, Jeering

Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.2530, Delphi Classics

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Thou wine art the friend of the friendless, though a foe to all.

Herman Melville

Art, Wine, Foe

Herman Melville (2015). “Mardi: and A Voyage Thither: Works of Melville”, p.201, 谷月社

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Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins?

Herman Melville

Nature, Orange, Rainbow

1891 Billy Budd, Foretopman (first published1924), ch.21.

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It is not for man to follow the trail of truth too far, since by so doing he entirely loses the directing compass of his mind.

Herman Melville

Truth, Men, Mind

Herman Melville (2016). “The Ambiguities”, p.280, Herman Melville

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Lo! ye believers in gods all goodness, and in man all ill, lo you! see the omniscient gods oblivious of suffering man; and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.

Herman Melville

Sweet, Gratitude, Men

Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.413, Cosimo, Inc.

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Is it possible, after all, that spite of bricks and shaven faces, this world we live in is brimmed with wonders, and I and all mankind, beneath our garbs of common-placeness, conceal enigmas that the stars themselves, and perhaps the highest seraphim can not resolve?

Herman Melville

Stars, Faces, Bricks

Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.179, Herman Melville

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But Captain Vere was now again motionless, standing absorbed in thought. Again starting, he vehemently exclaimed, "Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet that angel must hang!

Herman Melville

Angel, Captains, Starting

Herman Melville (2009). “Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales”, p.292, OUP Oxford

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Nature has not implanted any power in man that was not meant to be exercised at times, though too often our powers have been abused.

Herman Melville

Men, Were Not Meant To Be, Unendurable

Herman Melville (1970). “White-jacket: Or, The World in a Man-of-war”, p.280, Northwestern University Press

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If a well-constituted individual refrains from blazoning aught amiss or calamitous in his family, a nation in the like circumstance may without reproach be equally discreet.

Herman Melville

History, May, Individual

Herman Melville (2016). “Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories”, p.165, Penguin

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Of all insults, the temporary condescension of a master to a slave is the most outrageous and galling. That potentate who most condescends, mark him well; for that potentate, if occasion come, will prove your uttermost tyrant.

Herman Melville

Tyrants, Insult, Slave

Herman Melville (1970). “White-jacket: Or, The World in a Man-of-war”, p.276, Northwestern University Press

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I am sorry to say we whites have a sad reputation among many of the Polynesians. The natives of these islands are naturally of a kindly and hospitable temper, but there has been implanted among them an almost instinctive hate of the white man. They esteem us, with rare exceptions, such as some of the missionaries, the most barbarous, treacherous, irreligious, and devilish creatures on the earth.

Herman Melville

Sorry, Hate, Men

Herman Melville (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.415, Northwestern University Press

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When my eye rested on an arid height, spirit partook of the barrenness. - Heartily wish Niebuhr & Strauss to the dogs. The deuce take their penetration & acumen. They have robbed us of the bloom.

Herman Melville

Dog, Eye, Wish

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In the operative opinion of the world, he who is already fully provided with what is necessary for him, that man shall have more;while he who is deplorably destitute of the same, he shall have taken away from him even that which he hath. Yet the world vows it is a very plain, downright matter-of-fact, plodding, humane sort of world.

Herman Melville

Taken, Men, World

Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.332, Herman Melville

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That nameless and infinitely delicate aroma of inexpressible tenderness and attentiveness which, in every refined and honorable attachment, is contemporary with the courtship, and precedes the final banns and the rite; but which, like the bouquet of the costliest German wines, too often evaporates upon pouring love out to drink, in the disenchanting glasses of the matrimonial days and nights.

Herman Melville

Love, Marriage, Wine

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And yet self-knowledge is thought by some not so easy. Who knows, my dear sir, but for a time you may have taken yourself for somebody else? Stranger things have happened.

Herman Melville

Taken, Self, May

Herman Melville (1857). “The Confidence-man: His Masquerade”, p.24

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All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of
its features from behind the unreasoning mask.

Herman Melville

Men, Events, Deeds

1851 Captain Ahab. Moby Dick, ch.36.

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O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies; not the smallest atom stirs or lives on matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind.

Herman Melville

Men, Soul, Mind

Herman Melville (2012). “Moby Dick (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)”, p.339, Jazzybee Verlag

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The world is forever babbling of originality; but there never yet was an original man, in the sense intended by the world; the first man himself--who according to the Rabbins was also the first author--not being an original; the only original author being God.

Herman Melville

God, Men, Forever

Herman Melville (1971). “Pierre, Or The Ambiguities: Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition”, p.259, Northwestern University Press

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The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head--no intricate game of chess where few moves are made in straight-forwardness and ends are attained by indirection, an oblique, tedious, barren game hardly worth that poor candle burnt out in playing it.

Herman Melville

Moving, Games, Long

Herman Melville (2009). “Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales”, p.282, OUP Oxford

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So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard, and then you will float light and right.

Herman Melville

Light, Mind, Way

Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, G. Thomas Tanselle, Hershel Parker (1988). “Moby Dick, Or The Whale: Volume 6, Scholarly Edition”, p.327, Northwestern University Press

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Born: August 1, 1819
Died: September 28, 1891
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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