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Herman Melville

Herman Melville Quotes

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Famous Herman Melville Quotes

“Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and Superior, and Michigan possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many of the ocean's noblest traits... they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are, for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew.”

KnowsLandOceanSightWaveSuperiorsShipsTraitsCrewMidnightBlastMichiganLashesShipwreckOntarioExpansiveness
Book:Moby Dick the Whale Volume I EasyRead Ed
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“There is no figure more common in scripture, and none more beautiful, than that by which Christ is likened unto light. Incomprehensible in its nature, itself the first visible, and that by which all things are seen, light represents to us Christ. Whose generation none can declare, but Who must shine upon us ere we can know aught aright, whether of things Divine or human.”

KnowsFirstsHumansLightBeautifulChristCommonGenerationsFiguresDivineAll ThingsShiningScriptureVisibleEpiphany
Author:Herman Melville
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“At my years, and with my disposition, or rather, constitution, one gets to care less and less for everything except downright goodfeeling. Life is so short, and so ridiculous and irrational (from a certain point of view) that one knows not what to make of it, unless--well, finish the sentence for yourself.”

KnowsLifeYearsWellsFeelingsCareLife IsCertainViewsConstitutionSentencesPoint Of ViewRidiculousCynicismIrrationalDispositionGood FeelingLife Is So Short
Book:Correspondence
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“I don't know but a book in a man's brain is better off than a book bound in calf--at any rate it is safer from criticism. And taking a book off the brain, is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panel--you have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety--& even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble.”

KnowsMenMayBookWholeOrderBrainCreativityTroubleDangerousPaintingCriticismSafetyRateBoundsDuesBetter OffCalvesTicklish
Author:Herman Melville
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“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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“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.”

KnowsHumansSaidLightPastViewsClearHuman NatureDivineFindingsAppreciationContrastRepresentingInconsistencyDivine Nature
Book:The Confidence-man: His Masquerade
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“To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”

KnowsLifeArtAgeTimeGrowsDifficultKnow HowMastersAgingOld AgeBirthdayChaptersOld PeopleGreat ArtGrowing OldAgeingOld LadyArt Of Living50th BirthdayFunny AgingBirthdays And AgingFunny Old Age BirthdayYouth And Old AgeAge And YouthInspirational BirthdaySenior CitizenFunny AgeStaying YoungInspirational AgeQuotations Birthday Happy BirthdayAge And WisdomYouth FunnyAging And Wisdom
Author:Herman Melville
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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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“How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg - a cosy, loving pair.”

KnowsMenHeartSoulLyingMorningWifeCoupleBedLaysBottomPairsDisclosureHoneymoonOld TimeConfidentialCosyOld Couple
Book:Moby-Dick
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“We may have civilized bodies and yet barbarous souls. We are blind to the real sights of this world; deaf to its voice; and dead to its death. And not till we know, that one grief outweighs ten thousand joys will we become what Christianity is striving to make us.”

KnowsWorldMayRealSoulBodyDeathJoyVoiceGriefChristianityThis WorldThousandTenSightBlindStriveCivilizedDeaf
Book:Redburn: Works of Herman Melville Volume Four
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