A book in a man's brain is better off than a book bound in calf - at any rate it is safer from criticism. Herman Melville More Quotes by Herman Melville More Quotes From Herman Melville Appalling is the soul of a man! Better might one be pushed off into the material spaces beyond the uttermost orbit of our sun, than once feel himself fairly afloat in himself. Herman Melville space soul men Any appellative at all savouring of arbitrary rank is unsuitable to a man of liberal and catholic mind. Herman Melville catholic mind men It is a thing which every sensible American should learn from every sensible Englishman, that glare and glitter, gimcracks and gewgaws, are not indispensable to domestic solacement. Herman Melville glare opulence glitter It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open. Herman Melville literature impossible writing The grand principles of virtue and honor, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes, are the same the world over: and wherethese principles are concerned, the right or wrong of any action appears the same to the uncultivated as to the enlightened mind. Herman Melville principles honor mind Both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy. Herman Melville ancestry grief joy There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke. Herman Melville affair strange men But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep. Herman Melville woe delight hands See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them. Herman Melville prejudice grows An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea. Herman Melville sunset sea yellow Dollars damn me; and the malicious Devil is forever grinning in upon me, holding the door ajar. ... What I feel most moved to write, that is banned - it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches. Herman Melville writing doors book Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land. Herman Melville patriotic land children We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people - the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world. Herman Melville democracy israel people It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it. Herman Melville blow bird wind But the might-have-been is but boggy ground to build upon. Herman Melville might-have-been has-beens might This divineness had that in it which, though commanding worship, at the same time enforced a certain nameless terror. Herman Melville certain worship inspirational For in tremendous extremities human souls are like drowning men; well enough they know they are in peril; well enough they know the causes of that peril;--nevertheless, the sea is the sea, and these drowning men do drown. Herman Melville soul sea men In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti. Herman Melville angel night hands Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Herman Melville madness may thinking He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married. Herman Melville foreheads married said
