Herman Melville quotes - page 3

I feel that the Godhead is broken up like the bread at the Supper, and that we are the pieces. Hence this infinite fraternity of feeling. (Herman Melville)
We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people - the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world. View quote
Herman Melville
Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilise civilisation and christianise Christendom? View quote
Herman Melville
Say what some poets will, Nature is not so much her own ever-sweet interpreter, as the mere supplier of that cunning alphabet, whereby selecting and combining as he pleases, each man reads his own peculiar lesson according to his own peculiar mind and mood. View quote
Herman Melville
The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch. (You perceive I employ a capital initial in the pronoun referring to the Deity; don't you think there is a slight dash of flunkeyism in that usage?). View quote
Herman Melville
For God's sake, be economical with your lamps and candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man's blood was spilled for it. View quote
Herman Melville
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke. View quote
Herman Melville
There are hardly five critics in America; and several of them are asleep. View quote
Herman Melville
In armies, navies, cities, or families, in nature herself, nothing more relaxes good order than misery. View quote
Herman Melville
In time of peril, like the needle to the loadstone, obedience, irrespective of rank, generally flies to him who is best fitted to command. View quote
Herman Melville
Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang! (Herman Melville)
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and along these fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. View quote
Herman Melville
Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. View quote
Herman Melville
What troops Of generous boys in happiness thus bred - Saturnians through life's Tempe led, Went from the North and came from the South, With golden mottoes in the mouth, To lie down midway on a bloody bed. View quote
Herman Melville
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. View quote
Herman Melville
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. View quote
Herman Melville
All mortal greatness is but disease. View quote
Herman Melville
Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other So with sanity and insanity. View quote
Herman Melville
A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy All noble things are touched with that. View quote
Herman Melville
Silence is the general consecration of the universe. Silence is the invisible laying on of the Divine Pontiff's hands upon the world. Silence is at once the most harmless and the most awful thing in all nature. It speaks of the Reserved Forces of Fate. Silence is the only Voice of our God. View quote
Herman Melville
The poor old Past, The Future's slave, She drudged through pain and crime To bring about the blissful Prime, Then - perished. There's a grave! (Herman Melville)
I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy. View quote
Herman Melville
Oh, give me again the rover's life - the joy, the thrill, the whirl! Let me feel thee again, old sea! let me leap into thy saddle once more. I am sick of these terra firma toils and cares; sick of the dust and reek of towns. Let me hear the clatter of hailstones on icebergs, and not the dull tramp of these plodders, plodding their dull way from their cradles to their graves. Let me snuff thee up, sea-breeze! and whinny in thy spray. Forbid it, sea-gods! intercede for me with Neptune, O sweet Amphitrite, that no dull clod may fall on my coffin! Be mine the tomb that swallowed up Pharaoh and all his hosts; let me lie down with Drake, where he sleeps in the sea. View quote
Herman Melville
If possible, not to let the men so much as surmise that their officers anticipate aught amiss from them is the tacit rule in a military ship. And the more that some sort of trouble should really be apprehended the more do the officers keep that apprehension to themselves; tho' not the less unostentatious vigilance may be augmented. In the present instance the sentry placed over the prisoner had strict orders to let no one have communication with him but the Chaplain. And certain unobtrusive measures were taken absolutely to insure this point. View quote
Herman Melville
I cannot analyse my heart, though it then stood still within me. But the thing that swayed me to my purpose was not altogether the thought that Captain Claret was about to degrade me, and that I had taken an oath with my soul that he should not. No, I felt my man's manhood so bottomless within me, that no word, no blow, no scourge of Captain Claret could cut me deep enough for that. I but swung to an instinct in me - the instinct diffused through all animated nature, the same that prompts even a worm to turn under the heel. Locking souls-with him, I meant to drag Captain Claret from this earthly tribunal of his to that of Jehovah and let Him decide between us. No other way could I escape the scourge. View quote
Herman Melville