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Herman Melville

Herman Melville Quotes

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Famous Herman Melville Quotes

“He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof that a man wisely knows his powers,--it is only to be added, that, in that case, he knows them to be small.”

IfsKnowsMenSaidSuccessCasesGreatnessFailureTestsProofCan NotSuccess Failure
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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“To anybody who can hold the Present at its worth without being inappreciative of the Past, it may be forgiven, if to such an one the solitary old hulk at Portsmouth, Nelson's Victory, seems to float there, not alone as the decaying monument of a fame incorruptible, but also as a poetic approach, softened by its picturesqueness, to the Monitors and yet mightier hulls of the European ironclads.”

IfsMaySeemsPastVictoryFameApproachNostalgiaPoeticSolitaryForgivenFloatsNot AloneMonumentNelsonHullIroncladsPortsmouth
Book:Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories
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“A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.”

IfsThinkingMenWayPersonsStuffLaughingJokesGood ThingsPityOne ManScarceLaughableGood Laugh
Book:Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.”

IfsKnowsMenShouldTryingHappensWaterPathMeditationMagicFeetPleaseTenRainRiversLegsExperimentsDesertStreamsRegionsCarrieProfessorsPoolMetaphysicalAbsentGreat AmericanReverieRivers And WaterCaravansSea WaterAbsent MindedTap Water
Book:Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.”

IfsInspirationalStillsSoulSpaceHigherMountainBirdMadnessInvisibleLowestWoeSoarEaglesSunnyGorges
Book:Moby-Dick
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“Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.”

IfsThinkingHeartDoeMovingHeavenStarsBrainBoysPowerSunArmsBeatsInvisibleLiftsHeart BeatErrandsAhab
Book:Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)
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“truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.”

IfsWorldLongHas BeensSaidEnjoyQualityThis WorldColdComfortableLong TimeWarmthContrastSmall Parts
Book:Moby Dick, the Whale: Easyread Comfort Edition
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“If I had been downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart that I did but half fancy being committed this way to so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the absolute dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open sea. But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to think nothing.”

IfsThinkingMenWayHeartLongSaidSometimesMatterHappensEyeHalfSeaHonestMy HeartInvolvedAbsolutesStriveCommittedShipsFancySuspectsDictatorSuspicionStrifeVoyagesCover Ups
Book:Moby-Dick
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“All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.”

IfsMenFeelsHeartTurnsSidesRealizingBornLinesFireSilentRoundsCaughtPhilosopherTerrorBoatEveningMortalsNecksSubtlePerilWhalesYour Side
Book:Moby-Dick: World Classics
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“People think that if a man has undergone any hardship, he should have a reward; but for my part, if I have done the hardest possible day's work, and then come to sit down in a corner and eat my supper comfortably -why, then I don't think I deserve any reward for my hard day's work -for am I not now at peace? Is not my supper good?”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenShouldHardDonePeaceFoodDeserveShould HaveRewardsCornersHardestHardshipSupperHard Days
Book:Moby-Dick: An authoritative text
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“Though essaying but a sportive sail, I was driven from my course by a blast re sistless; and ill-provided, young, and bowed by the brunt of things before my prime, still fly before the gale. ... If after all these fearful fainting trances, the verdict be, the golden haven was not gained; yet in bold quest thereof, better to sink in boundless deeps than float on vulgar shoals; and give me, ye gods, an utter wreck, if wreck I do.”

IfsGivingStillsYoungCoursesHavensGive MeIllDrivenGoldenPrimeFearfulQuestsSailVulgarFloatsWrecksBoundlessBlastVerdictTranceGaleFaintingSportive
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
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“It is often to be observed, that as in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthly rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled and thrown out ; so, in digging in one s soul for the fine gold of genius, much dulness and common-place is first brought to light. Happy would it be, if the man possessed in himself some receptacle for his own rubbish of this sort: but he is like the occupant of a dwelling, whose refuse cannot be clapped into his own cellar, but must be deposited in the street before his own door, for the public functionaries to take care of.”

IfsMenFirstsSoulLightCareCommonDoorsStreetsMinesHe ManFineGeniusGoldRefuseTake CareThrownMetalsPossessedDwellingDiggingRubbishCellarsPrecious Metal
Book:Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities
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“And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me; if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of ; if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather have done than to have left undone ; if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.”

IfsMenWorldRealDoneWholeMightLeftPossibilityCollegeGloryDeserveShipsPrimeHonourAmbitiousDesksHarvardHereafterUndoneWhalesYaleCreditorsExecutors
Book:Moby Dick
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“Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle-a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy.”

IfsMenShouldSelfSpiritualInterestPrinciplesWiseHeardSweetPrideHigherHatredMurderMereCharitySakeCommittedSelfishnessMotiveConsiderationPhilanthropySelf InterestPrudentPromptsDiabolicalEnlistedSpiritual Pride
Book:Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall-Street
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