Quotes from Herman Melville
Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.
- Herman Melville
He knows himself, and all that's in him, who knows adversity.
- Herman Melville
A man of true science... thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
- Herman Melville
Implacable I, the implacable Sea; Implacable most when most I smile serene- Pleased, not appeased, by myriad wrecks in me.
- Herman Melville
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.
- Herman Melville
He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
- Herman Melville
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
- Herman Melville
We should, if possible, prove a teacher to posterity, instead of being the pupil of by-gone generations. More shall come after us than have gone before; the world is not yet middle-aged.
- Herman Melville
There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.
- Herman Melville
A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
- Herman Melville
O Death, the Consecrator! Nothing so sanctifies a name As to be written--Dead. Nothing so wins a life from blame, So covers it from wrath and shame, As doth the burial-bed.
- Herman Melville
To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment.
- Herman Melville