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Herman Melville

Herman Melville Quotes

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Famous Herman Melville Quotes

“In this world of lies, Truth is forced to fly like a scared white doe in the woodlands; and only by cunning glimpses will she reveal herself, as in Shakespeare and other masters of the great Art of Telling the Truth, even though it be covertly, and by snatches.”

WorldDoeArtLyingWhiteThis WorldMastersTruth IsScaredTelling The TruthGlimpseGreat ArtCunningWoodlandLies Truth
Book:Moby Dick, Or The Whale: Volume 6, Scholarly Edition
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“Where is there such an one who has not a thousand times been struck with a sort of infidel idea, that whatever other worlds God may be Lord of, he is not the Lord of this; for else this world would seem to give the lie to Him; so utterly repugnant seem its ways to the instinctively known ways of Heaven.”

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Book:Pierre; or The Ambiguities
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“In our man-of-war world, Life comes in at one gangway and Death goes overboard at the other. Under the man-of-war scourge, cursesmix with tears; and the sigh and the sob furnish the bass to the shrill octave of those who laugh to drown buried griefs of their own.”

MenWorldWarGriefLaughingTearsTragedyBuriedSighBassScourgeOverboardWorld Life
Book:THE TALES OF THE SEA - Premium Collection: 10 Maritime Novels & Adventure Classics in One Volume: Moby-Dick, Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, White-Jacket, Israel Potter, Billy Budd, Sailor, Benito Cereno & The Encantadas (Based on the Author's Experiences on a Cargo Ship & US Navy Service)
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“Books, gentlemen, are a species of men, and introduced to them you circulate in the "very best society" that this world can furnish, without the intolerable infliction of "dressing" to go into it. In your shabbiest coat and cosiest slippers you may socially chat even with the fastidious Earl of Chesterfield, and lounging under a tree enjoy the divinest intimacy with my late lord of Verulam.”

MenWorldMayBookReadingEnjoyLordTreeThis WorldLateSpeciesIntimacyGentlemanReading BooksCoatsDressingsSlippersFastidiousInflictionLounging
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
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“In the operative opinion of the world, he who is already fully provided with what is necessary for him, that man shall have more;while he who is deplorably destitute of the same, he shall have taken away from him even that which he hath. Yet the world vows it is a very plain, downright matter-of-fact, plodding, humane sort of world.”

MenWorldMatterFactsWealthOpinionTakenHumaneVowMatter Of FactDestitute
Book:Pierre; or The Ambiguities
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“As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing,never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she is but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral.”

MenWorldWayWarEarthLordAirSeaCraftsMortalsBoardsSailSailingSinkingMilky WayAdmiral
Book:White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war
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“There was about all the Romans a heroic tone peculiar to ancient life. Their virtues were great and noble, and these virtues madethem great and noble. They possessed a natural majesty that was not put on and taken off at pleasure, as was that of certain eastern monarchs when they put on or took off their garments of Tyrian dye. It is hoped that this is not wholly lost from the world, although the sense of earthly vanity inculcated by Christianity may have swallowed it up in humility.”

WorldMayCertainLostNaturalPleasureChristianityVirtueTakenGreatnessHumilityAncientNobleVanityTonePeculiarHeroicPossessedEasternMajestyGarmentsMonarchs
Book:Tales, Poems, and Other Writings
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“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
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“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.”

WorldWarWaterSeaShapesCreaturesEternalUniversalSpeciesTribesPreyBrillianceSharksCarrying OnCannibalismDevilishAzureDaintyRemorseless
Book:Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“The pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bearthe earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invokedfor favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.”

WorldFirstsEarthWindFairsStormShipsPassagesBowsBreezeWrathVoyagesFoulPulpit
Book:Annotated Moby Dick or, the Whale with English Grammar Exercises: by Herman Melville (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty. Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale. Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal. Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness. Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor! Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation. Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway.”

WorldNamesWaterThis WorldDutyPleaseGoodnessCourtSalvationOilBeing TrueCharmPilotsPreachingWoeGaleDishonorCastaway
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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“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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“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
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“All Profound things, and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence... Silence is the general consecration of the universe. Silence is the invisible laying on of the Divine Pontiff's hands upon the world. Silence is at once the most harmless and the most awful thing in all nature. It speaks of the Reserved Forces of Fate. Silence is the only Voice of our God.”

WorldHandsUniverseSpeakForceVoiceEmotionSilenceGraceFateDivineMindfulnessHarmonyProfoundInvisibleAwfulSilence IsGrace Of GodReservedConsecration
Author:Herman Melville
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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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“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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