Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly. Herman Melville More Quotes by Herman Melville More Quotes From Herman Melville Time is made up of various ages; and each thinks its own a novelty. Herman Melville generations age thinking For the profit of travel: in the first place, you get rid of a few prejudices.... The prejudiced against color finds several hundred millions of people of all shades of color, and all degrees of intellect, rank, and social worth, generals, judges, priests, and kings, and learns to give up his foolish prejudice. Herman Melville giving-up kings travel He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Herman Melville failure wisdom success It is plain and demonstrable, that much ale is not good for Yankee, and operates differently upon them from what it does upon a Briton; ale must be drank in a fog and a drizzle. Herman Melville fog yankees doe Students of history are horror-struck at the massacres of old; but in the shambles, men are being murdered to-day. Herman Melville horror students men A ship is a bit of terra firma cut off from the main; it is a state in itself; and the captain is its king. Herman Melville cutting kings sea To anybody who can hold the Present at its worth without being inappreciative of the Past, it may be forgiven, if to such an one the solitary old hulk at Portsmouth, Nelson's Victory, seems to float there, not alone as the decaying monument of a fame incorruptible, but also as a poetic approach, softened by its picturesqueness, to the Monitors and yet mightier hulls of the European ironclads. Herman Melville hull victory past Ah! the best righteousness of our man-of-war world seems but an unrealized ideal, after all; and those maxims which, in the hope of bringing about a Millennium, we busily teach to the heathen, we Christians ourselves disregard. Herman Melville christian men war We talk of the Turks, and abhor the cannibals; but may not some of them, go to heaven, before some of us? Herman Melville afterlife may heaven At banquets surfeit not, but fill; partake, and retire; and eat not again till you crave. Herman Melville banquets retiring eating It is against the will of God that the East should be Christianized. Herman Melville east should christianity Poor fish of Rodondo! in your victimized confidence, you are of the number of those who inconsiderately trust, while they do not understand, human nature. Herman Melville human-nature poor numbers He, who, in view of its inconsistencies, says of human nature the same that, in view of its contrasts, is said of the divine nature, that it is past finding out, thereby evinces a better appreciation of it than he who, by always representing it in a clear light, leaves it to be inferred that he clearly knows all about it. Herman Melville light appreciation past At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect. Herman Melville wine sea water The grand points in human nature are the same to-day they were a thousand years ago. The only variability in them is in expression, not in feature. Herman Melville human-nature expression years One would like to know, what were foes made for except to be used? Herman Melville foe use made As with ships, so with men; he who turns his back to his foe gives him an advantage. Herman Melville ships giving men I will live and die by this testimony: that I loved a good conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty; and that I preserved my own. Herman Melville testimony liberty men In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. Herman Melville pay world travel That mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true--not true, or undeveloped. Herman Melville sorrow joy men
