Many sensible things banished from high life find an asylum among the mob. Herman Melville More Quotes by Herman Melville More Quotes From Herman Melville And the visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright. Herman Melville invisible spheres world The Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future is the Bible of the Free. Herman Melville tyrants textbooks past Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and Superior, and Michigan possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many of the ocean's noblest traits... they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are, for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew. Herman Melville ocean land sight It is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realise the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. Herman Melville subtle whales silent Say what some poets will, Nature is not so much her own ever-sweet interpreter, as the mere supplier of that cunning alphabet, whereby selecting and combining as he pleases, each man reads his own peculiar lesson according to his own peculiar mind and mood. Herman Melville mind sweet men All Profound things, and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence. Herman Melville emotion silence profound 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 capes brave men Zeal is not of necessity religion, neither is it always of the same essence with poetry or patriotism. Herman Melville zeal essence But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy. Herman Melville woe down-and joy The symmetry of form attainable in pure fiction can not so readily be achieved in a narration essentially having less to do with fable than with fact. Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges. Herman Melville fables facts fiction Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. Herman Melville whales flames giving Cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone; and horrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and condemned, still I assert that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous. Herman Melville cannibalism indulge-in enemy We are not a nation, so much as a world; for unless we claim all the world for our sire, like Melchisedec, we are without father or mother. Herman Melville mother father world That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia. Herman Melville australia sides america To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment. Herman Melville left-handers lefties literature flight from tyranny does not of itself insure a safe asylum, far less a happy home. Herman Melville safe doe home ...in certain moods, no man can weigh this world without throwing in something, somehow like Original Sin, to strike the uneven balance. Herman Melville balance men world Were this world an endless pain, and by sailing eastward we could forever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage. Herman Melville pain kings sweet There was about all the Romans a heroic tone peculiar to ancient life. Their virtues were great and noble, and these virtues madethem great and noble. They possessed a natural majesty that was not put on and taken off at pleasure, as was that of certain eastern monarchs when they put on or took off their garments of Tyrian dye. It is hoped that this is not wholly lost from the world, although the sense of earthly vanity inculcated by Christianity may have swallowed it up in humility. Herman Melville greatness taken humility The shadows of things are greater than themselves; and the more exaggerated the shadow, the more unlike the substance. Herman Melville greater shadow substance
