Quotes from Herman Melville

Comparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo, which, not forty years ago, overspread by tens of thousands the prairies of Illinois and Missouri, and shook their iron manes and scowled with their thunder-clotted brows upon the sites of populous river-capitals, where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar an inch; in such a comparison an irresistible argument would seem furnished, to show that the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy extinction.

Alle tragischen Männer gewinnen ihre Größe durch etwas Krankhaftes in ihnen.

I feel deadly faint, bowed, and humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise.

as a general lassitude overtakes the sated Turk; then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens; our Ottoman enters upon the impotent, repentant, admonitory stage of life, forswears, disbands the harem, and grown to an exemplary, sulky old soul, goes about all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his prayers, and warning each young Leviathan from his amorous errors.

cannibals—morally enfeebled also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in Starbuck, the invulnerable jollity of indifference and recklessness in Stubb, and the pervading mediocrity in Flask.

and then blowing out the light tumbled into bed, and commended myself to the care of heaven.

Thought he, it's a wicked world in all meridians; I'll die a pagan.

I think, sir, they have some such mild blue days, even as this, in Nantucket.

Nous n'aborderons pas ici le thème de toutes les singularités de Queequeg, nous passerons sous silence sa manière de s'abstenir de café et

Podéis captar la expresión de ese cachalote, allí? Es la misma con que murió, sólo que algunas de las más largas arrugas de la frente ahora se diría que se han borrado. Me parece que esta ancha frente está llena de una placidez de dehesa, nacida de una indiferencia filosófica hacia la muerte.

though from unavoidable circumstances, considerable of it

Queequeg, nous passerons sous silence sa manière

I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.

Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.

Wherefore, for all these things, we account the whale immortal in his species, however perishable in his individuality

Then, if the hull go down, there'll be thirty lively fellows all fighting for one coffin, a sight not seen very often beneath the sun!

street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

truth comes in with darkness.

Look ye, carpenter, I dare say thou callest thyself a right good workmanlike workman, eh!

spectacle d'étrangers des plus bizarres et des plus

The Forty-barrel-bull schools are larger than the harem schools. Like a mob of young collegians, they are full of fight, fun, and wickedness, tumbling round the world at such a reckless, rollicking rate, that no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous lad at Yale or Harvard. They soon relinquish this turbulence though, and when about three-fourths grown, break up, and separately go about in quest of settlements, that is, harems.

Those who thought they best knew her, often wondered what happiness such a being could take in life, not considering the happiness which is to be had by some natures in the very easy way of simply causing pain to those around them.

Another point of difference between the male and female schools is still more characteristic of the sexes. Say you strike a Forty-barrel-bull—poor devil! all his comrades quit him. But strike a member of the harem school, and her companions swim around her with every token of concern, sometimes lingering so near her and so long, as themselves to fall a prey.

E quem chegasse ao caos da boca deste monstro, fosse besta, navio ou pedra, ele engolia incontinente com sua bocarra enorme e fétida, e perecia no abismo sem fundo de seu estômago". PHILLEMON HOLLAND. "A MORAL DE PLUTARCO".