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Herman Melville

Herman Melville Quotes

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Famous Herman Melville Quotes

“Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, though canst never return!”

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Book:Moby Dick
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“Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning.”

GivingFeelsFirstsSoulWaterBoysSeaCrazyLandBrotherHolyHealthySightEnvironmentalShipsGreekMysticalDeitiesVibrationsVoyagesPassengersRobustHealthy Soul
Book:Moby Dick
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“Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary? Where is the foundling’s father hidden? Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.”

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Book:Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)
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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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“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

PeopleI CanSoulHandsStrongMoralPrinciplesGrowingSeaStreetsDepressionMouthsAccountsMy SoulHatsFuneralSailSailingSailorNovemberGrimKnockingCoffinsDampMoral PrinciplesNauticalSailing And The SeaWarehouseBoats And SailingPausingUpper HandHats Off
Book:Moby-Dick: A Picture Voyage : an Abridged and Illustrated Edition of the Original Classic
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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.”

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Book:Redburn: Works of Herman Melville Volume Four
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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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