Herman Melville quotes - page 5

I would prefer not to. (Herman Melville)
There is something wrong about the man who wants help. There is somewhere a deep defect, a want, in brief, a need, a crying need, somewhere about that man. View quote
Herman Melville
There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse, that should forever exempt him from indignities. View quote
Herman Melville
Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them. View quote
Herman Melville
At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect. View quote
Herman Melville
It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open. View quote
Herman Melville
There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future. View quote
Herman Melville
Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals. View quote
Herman Melville
Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth and go to the Soup Societies. Heavens! Let any clergyman try to preach the Truth from its very stronghold, the pulpit, and they would ride him out of his church on his own pulpit bannister. View quote
Herman Melville
The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind; but not the march of Love. View quote
Herman Melville
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)
There are some persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of being wise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they have sagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them. View quote
Herman Melville
Book! You lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts. View quote
Herman Melville
Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity! View quote
Herman Melville
Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. View quote
Herman Melville
In one word, Queequeg, said I, rather digressively; hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple-dumpling; and since then perpetuated through the hereditary dyspepsias nurtured by Ramadans. View quote
Herman Melville
To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment. View quote
Herman Melville
Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land. View quote
Herman Melville
A chaplain is the minister of the Prince of Peace serving the host of the God of War--Mars. As such, he is as incongruous as a musket would be on the altar at Christmas. Why, then, is he there? Because he indirectly subserves the purpose attested by the cannon; because too he lends the sanction of the religion of the meek to that which practically is the abrogation of everything but brute Force. View quote
Herman Melville
For in tremendous extremities human souls are like drowning men; well enough they know they are in peril; well enough they know the causes of that peril;--nevertheless, the sea is the sea, and these drowning men do drown. View quote
Herman Melville
Some dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows ought to be indulged. (Herman Melville)
There is all of the difference in the world between paying and being paid. View quote
Herman Melville
I am madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calm to comprehend itself. View quote
Herman Melville
Leviathan is not the biggest fish; - I have heard of Krakens. View quote
Herman Melville
Know, thou, that the lines that live are turned out of a furrowed brow. View quote
Herman Melville