Herman Melville Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

• There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse, that should forever exempt him from indignities.

  Herman Melville

  Horse, Forever, Special

  Herman Melville (2016). “Redburn.His First Voyage”, p.222, Herman Melville

• There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

  Herman Melville

  Order, Literature, Method

  Herman Melville (2016). “Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale”, p.299, Cosimo, Inc.

• To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it.

  Herman Melville

  Book, Writing, Literature

  Moby Dick ch. 104 (1851)

• Art is the objectification of feeling.

  Herman Melville

  Inspirational, Art, Feelings

  "Mind, An Essay on Human Feeling,". Book by Susanne Katherina Langer, vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 4, 1967.

• Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

  Herman Melville

  Literature, Edges, Ragged

  Herman Melville (2009). “Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales”, p.312, OUP Oxford

• For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.

  Herman Melville

  Fear, Book, Men

  Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.328, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

• Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, - for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it - not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.

  Herman Melville

  Strength, Literature, Way

  Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.196, Northwestern University Press

• There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.

  Herman Melville

  Sweet, Sea, Soul

  Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.535, Velvet Element Books

• Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

  Herman Melville

  Doubt, Atheism, Literature

  1851 Moby Dick, ch.7.

• Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

  Herman Melville

  Inspirational, Christian, Drinking

  Moby Dick ch. 3 (1851)

• 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, Heart, Race

  Moby Dick ch. 41 (1851)

• There are some persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of being wise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they have sagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them.

  Herman Melville

  Wise, Thinking, Giving

  Herman Melville (2016). “The Confidence-Man”, p.31, Open Road Media

• There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals.

  Herman Melville

  Purple, Devil, Democracy

  Herman Melville (2016). “Redburn.His First Voyage”, p.310, Herman Melville

• To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment.

  Herman Melville

  Left Handers, Literature, Lefties

  Herman Melville (1982). “Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi”, p.520, Library of America

• There is all of the difference in the world between paying and being paid.

  Herman Melville

  Differences, Literature, World

  Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.5, Velvet Element Books

• At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect.

  Herman Melville

  Wine, Sea, Water

  Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.346, Northwestern University Press

• It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open.

  Herman Melville

  Writing, Literature, Impossible

  Herman Melville (2015). “Pierre or The Ambiguities: Works of Melville”, p.254, 谷月社

• Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?

  Herman Melville

  Quality, Gone, Literature

• It is not the purpose of literature to purvey news. For news consult the Almanac de Gotha.

  Herman Melville

  Purpose, News, Literature

  Herman Melville (1924). “The works of Herman Melville”

• To be called one thing, is oftentimes to be another.

  Herman Melville

  Literature, One Thing

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.898, Delphi Classics

• I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable socialities are in me. I would sit down and dine with you and all the gods in old Rome's Pantheon. It is a strange feeling--no hopefulness is in it, no despair. Content--that is it; and irresponsibility; but without licentious inclination.

  Herman Melville

  Book, Rome, Feelings

  Herman Melville (2001). “Tales, Poems, and Other Writings”

• Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?

  Herman Melville

  Fate, Men, Judging

  Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.370, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

• The further our civilization advances upon its present lines so much the cheaper sort of thing does "fame" become, especially of the literary sort. This species of "fame" a waggish acquaintance says can be manufactured to order, and sometimes is so manufactured.

  Herman Melville

  Civilization, Order, Literature

  Herman Melville, Lynn Horth (1993). “Correspondence”, p.492, Northwestern University Press

• As in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthy rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled and thrown out; so, in digging in one's soul for the fine gold of genius, much dullness and common-place is first brought to light.

  Herman Melville

  Creativity, Light, Soul

  Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.327, Herman Melville

• There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too; and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is.

  Herman Melville

  Sorrow, Literature, World

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.2852, Delphi Classics

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