Praise when merited is not a boon: yet to a generous nature, is it pleasant to utter it. Herman Melville More Quotes by Herman Melville More Quotes From Herman Melville Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth. Herman Melville commandmentssleepthinking The phantom-host has faded quite, Splendor and Terror gone-- Portent or promise--and gives way To pale, meek Dawn. Herman Melville givingwaypromise There is nothing namable but that some men will, or undertake to, do it for pay. Herman Melville paymen What plays the mischief with the truth is that men will insist upon the universal application of a temporary feeling or opinion. Herman Melville playfeelingsmen The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils. Herman Melville perildangerjoy He who goes oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly. Herman Melville hornscapesdanger Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands. Herman Melville landnursesky God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates. Herman Melville heartmenthinking What man who carries a heavenly soul in him, has not groaned to perceive, that unless he committed a sort of suicide as to the practical things of this world, he never can hope to regulate his earthly conduct by that same heavenly soul? Herman Melville soulsuicidemen Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part. Herman Melville lighteyemen ...The silent reminiscence of hardships departed, is sweeter than the presence of delight. Herman Melville departedhardshipgratitude Evil is the chronic malady of the universe, and checked in one place, breaks forth in another. Herman Melville maladybreakevil Youth is immortal; Tis the elderly only grow old! Herman Melville immortalelderlyyouth The lightning flashes through my skull; mine eyeballs ache and ache; my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground. Herman Melville skullslightbrain The pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bearthe earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invokedfor favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow. Herman Melville stormwrathwind Did all the lets and bars appear Herman Melville cheerboyswar There is no figure more common in scripture, and none more beautiful, than that by which Christ is likened unto light. Incomprehensible in its nature, itself the first visible, and that by which all things are seen, light represents to us Christ. Whose generation none can declare, but Who must shine upon us ere we can know aught aright, whether of things Divine or human. Herman Melville shininglightbeautiful Nature has not implanted any power in man that was not meant to be exercised at times, though too often our powers have been abused. Herman Melville were-not-meant-to-beunendurablemen Our souls belong to our bodies, not our bodies to our souls. Herman Melville bodysoul 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 hateraceheart
