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Quote by Herman Melville

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Moby-Dick: or, The Whale

Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick' is a profound and complex narrative that intertwines the story of Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of the elusive white whale, Moby Dick, with philosophical musings on nature, religion, and the human soul. The novel is renowned for its rich language, intricate plot, and exploration of themes such as the nature of evil, the role of fate, and the struggle between individualism and societal norms. more

Author

Herman Melville
Herman Melville

Herman Melville was a renowned 19th-century American novelist known for his profound psychological descriptions and unique literary style. His masterpiece, 'Moby-Dick', is considered a classic of American literature. more

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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.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
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“The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation. The Past is, in many things, the foe of mankind; the Future is, in all things, our friend. In the Past is no hope; The Future is both hope and fruition. The Past is the text-book of tyrants; the Future is the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot's wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.”

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“The ancients of the ideal description, instead of trying to turn their impracticable chimeras, as does the modern dreamer, into social and political prodigies, deposited them in great works of art, which still live while states and constitutions have perished, bequeathing to posterity not shameful defects but triumphant successes.”

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Book:Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition
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