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Herman Melville Quotes | Quotes said by Herman Melville

  • Herman Melville Quote #1

    ... an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.

  • Herman Melville Quote #2

    ... the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril,

  • Herman Melville Quote #3

    ...the great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open...

  • Herman Melville Quote #4

    ...then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander's soul.

  • Herman Melville Quote #5

    ...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

  • Herman Melville Quote #6

    ...yet see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.

  • Herman Melville Quote #7

    [T]hen all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.

  • Herman Melville Quote #8

    [T]here is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.

  • Herman Melville Quote #9

    …for it is often to be observed of the shallower men, that they are the very last to despond. It is the glory of the bladder that nothing can sink it; it is the reproach of a box of treasure, that once overboard it must drown

  • Herman Melville Quote #10

    A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.

  • Herman Melville Quote #11

    A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

  • Herman Melville Quote #12

    A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

  • Herman Melville Quote #13

    Ah, happiness courts the light so we deem the world is gay. But misery hides aloof so we deem that misery there is none.

  • Herman Melville Quote #14

    Ahab and aguish lay stretched together in one hammock.

  • Herman Melville Quote #15

    Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant, I act under orders.

  • Herman Melville Quote #16

    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.

  • Herman Melville Quote #17

    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.

  • Herman Melville Quote #18

    All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.

  • Herman Melville Quote #19

    An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.

  • Herman Melville Quote #20

    And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment.

  • Herman Melville Quote #21

    and yet a child’s utter innocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less wanes as intelligence waxes.

  • Herman Melville Quote #22

    Are not half our lives spent in reproaches for foregone actions, of the true nature and consequences of which we were wholly ignorant at the time?

  • Herman Melville Quote #23

    As minhas primeiras emoções tinham sido a melancolia mais pura e a compaixão mais sincera, mas na mesma proporção em que o desamparo de Bartleby crescia na minha fantasia, aquela melancolia se transformava em medo, e a compaixão, em repulsa. É tão verdadeiro e ao mesmo tempo tão terrivel o fato de que, ao vermos ou presenciarmos a miséria, os nossos melhores sentimentos são despertados até um cer
    to ponto; mas, em certos casos especiais, não passam disso. Erram os que afirmam que é devido apenas ao egoísmo inerente ao coração humano. Na verdade, provém de uma certa impotência em remediar um mal excessivo e orgânico. Para uma pessoa sensivel, a piedade é quase sempre uma dor. Quando afinal percebe que tal piedade não significa um socorro eficaz, o bom senso compele a alma a desvencilhar-se dela. O que vi naquela manhã convenceu-me de que o escrivão era vítima de um mal inato e incurável. Eu podia dar esmolas ao seu corpo, mas o seu corpo não lhe doía; era a sua alma que sofria, e ela estava fora do meu alcance.

  • Herman Melville Quote #24

    At last I see it, I feel it; I penetrate to the predestinated purpose of my life. I am content. Others may have loftier parts to enact; but my mission in this world, Bartleby, is to furnish you with office-room for such period as you may see fit to remain.

    I believe that this wise and blessed frame of mind would have continued with me, had it not been for the unsolicited and uncharitable remarks obtruded upon me by my professional friends who visited the rooms. But thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous.

  • Herman Melville Quote #25

    At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor. The long rows of teeth on the bulwarks glistened in the moonlight; and like the white ivory tusks of some huge elephant, vast curving icicles depended from the bows.

  • Herman Melville Quote #26

    At present I would prefer not to be a little reasonable,' was his mildly cadaverous reply.

  • Herman Melville Quote #27

    At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect.

  • Herman Melville Quote #28

    At the time I now write of, Father Mapple was in the hardy winter of a healthy old age; that sort of old age which seems merging into a second flowering youth, for among all the fissures of his wrinkles, there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloom - the spring verdure peeping forth even beneath February's snow.

  • Herman Melville Quote #29

    Aye, aye, it must be so. I've oversailed him. How, got the start? Aye, he's chasing ME now; not I, HIM--that's bad

  • Herman Melville Quote #30

    Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.

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