Quotessence
Home / Authors / Herman Melville
Herman Melville

Herman Melville Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenWorldIfsSeaLiteratureSoulHeartMayFirstsKnowsThinkingShouldLifeWarHumansDoeSeemsDeathFateHumanity

Famous Herman Melville Quotes

“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.”

MenWorldHumansWellsChildrenAgeTurnsSidesWiseUniversalInstinctSimplicityHuman LifeGood ManTruestContainingBad ManAffirmingInquisitive
Book:Pierre or The Ambiguities
Create image

“An indiscriminate distrust of human nature is the worst consequence of a miserable condition, whether brought about by innocence or guilt. And though want of suspicion more than want of sense, sometimes leads a man into harm; yet too much suspicion is as bad as too little sense.”

MenWantHumansLittlesSometimesToo MuchWorstConditionsHuman NatureConsequenceGuiltHarmMiserableInnocenceSuspicionDistrust
Book:Israel Potter: Works of Melville
Create image

“I am sorry to say we whites have a sad reputation among many of the Polynesians. The natives of these islands are naturally of a kindly and hospitable temper, but there has been implanted among them an almost instinctive hate of the white man. They esteem us, with rare exceptions, such as some of the missionaries, the most barbarous, treacherous, irreligious, and devilish creatures on the earth.”

MenHas BeensEarthHateWhiteCreaturesSorryEsteemReputationIslandsExceptionTemperWhite ManWickednessTreacherousI Am SorryAm SorryDevilishPolynesians
Book:Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition
Create image

“That hour in the life of a man when first the help of humanity fails him, and he learns that in his obscurity and indigence humanity holds him a dog and no man: that hour is a hard one, but not the hardest. There is still another hour which follows, when he learns that in his infinite comparative minuteness and abjectness, the gods do likewise despise him, and own him not of their clan.”

MenFirstsStillsHardHelpingHumanityHoursFailingDogInfiniteHardestRejectionDespiseObscurityClans
Book:Pierre: Or, the Ambiguities
Create image

“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)
Create image

“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)
Create image

“I have no objection to any person's religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don't believe it also. But when a man's religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.”

ThinkingMenBelieveMayPersonsLongDoeEarthIndividualFineDon't BelieveArguingUncomfortableInsultTormentObjectionsFranticInnsLodges
Author:Herman Melville
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.”

MenWorldDoeSeemsIndividualStrongVirtueBloodThis WorldWallModelsSeasonsWarmAdmireIcePeterThickInteriorsVitalityThyselfTemperatureFluidWhalesBeing CoolDomesEquatorSpaciousnessSt PeterStrong Individuals
Book:Moby Dick
Create image

“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
Create image

“However baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.”

MenMayLostSeaBabySkillsMurderImpressionInsultCracksNeverthelessRepetitionDoomSailorFlatteringBragAwfulness
Book:Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)
Create image

“The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true-- not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe.”

MenTwoBookEarthJoySidesDarkSunFineSorrowOceanThirdsBeing TrueMortalsSteelWoeTruestDark SideSolomonHammeredEcclesiastes
Book:Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)
Create image

“The stillness of the calm is awful. His voice begins to grow strange and portentous. He feels it in him like something swallowed too big for the esophagus. It keeps up a sort of involuntary interior humming in him, like a live beetle. His cranium is a dome full of reverberations. The hollows of his very bones are as whispering galleries. He is afraid to speak loud, lest he be stunned; like the man in the bass drum.”

MenFeelsBigsSpeakGrowsVoiceStrangeCalmBonesAwfulLoudStillnessInteriorsBassGalleryLike SomethingWhisperingStunnedInvoluntaryDomesHummingBeetlesReverberation
Book:Mardi: And a Voyage Thither
Create image

“So, cutting the lashing of the waterproof match keg, after many failures Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then stretching it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-bearer of this forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.”

MenHeartHopeCuttingDespairStandardsSymbolsSatMidstCandleAlmightyLampsStretchingStarbucksIgniteImbecilesLanternsForlornKegsSigns And SymbolsForlorn Hope
Book:Moby Dick
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image