You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know any thing. Herman Melville More Quotes by Herman Melville More Quotes From Herman Melville The phantom-host has faded quite, Splendor and Terror gone-- Portent or promise--and gives way To pale, meek Dawn. Herman Melville giving way promise There is nothing namable but that some men will, or undertake to, do it for pay. Herman Melville pay men What plays the mischief with the truth is that men will insist upon the universal application of a temporary feeling or opinion. Herman Melville play feelings men The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils. Herman Melville peril danger joy He who goes oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly. Herman Melville horns capes danger 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 land nurse sky 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 heart men thinking 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 soul suicide men 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 light eye men ...The silent reminiscence of hardships departed, is sweeter than the presence of delight. Herman Melville departed hardship gratitude Evil is the chronic malady of the universe, and checked in one place, breaks forth in another. Herman Melville malady break evil Youth is immortal; Tis the elderly only grow old! Herman Melville immortal elderly youth 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 skulls light brain 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 storm wrath wind Did all the lets and bars appear Herman Melville cheer boys war 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 shining light beautiful 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-be unendurable men Our souls belong to our bodies, not our bodies to our souls. Herman Melville body soul 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 hate race heart Better be secure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions of monarchs, though oneself be one of them. Herman Melville violence twenties kings
