Herman Melville Quotes

What could be more full of meaning? — for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest come in its rear; the pulpit leads the world.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. 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. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of doors; indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the room. The more so, I say, because 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. But if the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.

Thought he, it's a wicked world in all meridians; I'll die a pagan.

Of all tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are the most apt to get out of order.

There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man.

Adverse winds are holding mad Christmas in him, boys.

Ignorance is the parent of fear

ما أشد ما أحتقر الأرض ذات الحواجز والإتاوات والجوازات! تلك الطريق العامة التي خدّدتها نعال العبودية وحوافرها! وتحوّلتُ إلى الإعجاب بعظمة البحر الذي لا تنطبع فيه آثار.

hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple-dumpling...

Whatever my fate, I'll go to it laughing.

Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.

I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.

I am heartily sorry I ever wrote anything about you — it was paltry. Lord, when shall we be done growing? As long as we have anything more to do, we have done nothing. So, now, let us add Moby-Dick to our blessing, and step from that. Leviathan is not the biggest fish; — I have heard of Krakens.

I am past scorching; not easily can’st thou scorch a scar.