Herman Melville Quotes - Page 18

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• Much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul.

  Herman Melville

  Character, Men, Skulls

  Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, G. Thomas Tanselle (1988). “Moby Dick, Or The Whale: Volume 6, Scholarly Edition”, p.349, Northwestern University Press

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• There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals.

  Herman Melville

  Purple, Devil, Democracy

  Herman Melville (2016). “Redburn.His First Voyage”, p.310, Herman Melville

  16 Copy quote

• Ah! the best righteousness of our man-of-war world seems but an unrealized ideal, after all; and those maxims which, in the hope of bringing about a Millennium, we busily teach to the heathen, we Christians ourselves disregard.

  Herman Melville

  Christian, War, Men

  Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.378

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• ...a man of true science uses few hard words, and those only when none
  other will answer his purpose; Where as the smatterer in science...thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.

  Herman Melville

  Men, Thinking, Purpose

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• We talk of the Turks, and abhor the cannibals; but may not some of them, go to heaven, before some of us?

  Herman Melville

  Afterlife, Heaven, May

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1380, Delphi Classics

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

  Herman Melville

  Laughter, Men, Thinking

  Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.46, Cosimo, Inc.

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• He, who, in view of its inconsistencies, says of human nature the same that, in view of its contrasts, is said of the divine nature, that it is past finding out, thereby evinces a better appreciation of it than he who, by always representing it in a clear light, leaves it to be inferred that he clearly knows all about it.

  Herman Melville

  Appreciation, Past, Light

  Herman Melville (1988). “The Confidence-man: His Masquerade”, p.464, Northwestern University Press

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• The earliest instinct of the child, and the ripest experience of age, unite in affirming simplicity to be the truest and profoundest part for man. Likewise this simplicity is so universal and all-containing as a rule for human life, that the subtlest bad man, and the purest good man, as well as the profoundest wise man, do all alike present it on that side which they socially turn to the inquisitive and unscrupulous world.

  Herman Melville

  Wise, Children, Men

  Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre or The Ambiguities”, p.287, Herman Melville

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• Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship's decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them.

  Herman Melville

  Dog, Fighting, Animal

  Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.327, Velvet Element Books

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• For though consciences are as unlike as foreheads, every intelligence, not including the Scriptural devils who "believe and tremble" has one.

  Herman Melville

  Believe, Devil, Foreheads

  Herman Melville (2016). “Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories”, p.178, Penguin

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• It is plain and demonstrable, that much ale is not good for Yankee, and operates differently upon them from what it does upon a Briton; ale must be drank in a fog and a drizzle.

  Herman Melville

  Yankees, Fog, Doe

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1232, Delphi Classics

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• We are not a nation, so much as a world; for unless we claim all the world for our sire, like Melchisedec, we are without father or mother.

  Herman Melville

  Mother, Father, World

  Herman Melville (2010). “Redburn”, p.224, Modern Library

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• The man's (a heathen south sea islander) a human being, just as I am; he has just as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

  Herman Melville

  Christian, Sleep, Men

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• Poor fish of Rodondo! in your victimized confidence, you are of the number of those who inconsiderately trust, while they do not understand, human nature.

  Herman Melville

  Numbers, Human Nature, Poor

  Herman Melville (2016). “Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories”, p.109, Penguin

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• The western spirit is, or will yet be (for no other is, or can be) the true American one.

  Herman Melville

  America, Spirit, Western

  Herman Melville (2015). “Israel Potter: Works of Melville”, p.146, 谷月社

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• Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of this great allegory - the world? Then we pygmies must be content to have out paper allegories but ill comprehended.

  Herman Melville

  World, Paper, Adam

  Herman Melville (2003). “Moby-Dick”, p.604, Bantam Classics

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• It is-or seems to be-a wise sort of thing, to realise that all that happens to a man in this life is only by way of joke, especially his misfortunes, if he have them. And it is also worth bearing in mind, that the joke is passed round pretty liberally & impartially, so that not very many are entitled to fancy that they in particular are getting the worst of it.

  Herman Melville

  Wise, Men, Mind

  Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.203, Northwestern University Press

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• War being the greatest of evils, all its accessories necessarily partake of the same character.

  Herman Melville

  War, Character, Evil

  Herman Melville (1850). “Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, During a Four Months' Residence in the Valley of the Marquesas”

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• Thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous.

  Herman Melville

  Often Is, Mind, Lasts

  Herman Melville (2016). “Bartleby, The Scrivener”, p.30, Herman Melville

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• Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!

  Herman Melville

  Angel

  Herman Melville (1962). “Billy Budd, Sailor”, p.98, University of Chicago Press

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• In time of peril, like the needle to the loadstone, obedience, irrespective of rank, generally flies to him who is best fitted to command.

  Herman Melville

  Obedience, Peril, Command

  Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket: or, The world in a man-of-war”, p.114

  7 Copy quote

• It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it.

  Herman Melville

  Blow, Wind, Bird

  8 Copy quote

• The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely pride, the memory of their absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns!

  Herman Melville

  Lonely, Stars, Memories

  Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.138, Velvet Element Books

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• It is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right Whale was esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded large prices there.

  Herman Melville

  Whales, Three, Records

  Herman Melville (2016). “Herman Melville The Dover Reader”, p.297, Courier Dover Publications

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• Nothing may help or heal While Amor incensed remembers wrong.

  Herman Melville

  Amor, May, Helping

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.4237, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

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