Quotes from Herman Melville

The Marquesas! What strange visions of outlandish things does the very name spirit up! Naked houris—cannibal banquets—groves of cocoanut—coral reefs—tattooed chiefs—and bamboo temples; sunny valleys planted with bread-fruit-trees—carved canoes dancing on the flashing blue waters—savage woodlands guarded by horrible idols—HEATHENISH RITES AND HUMAN SACRIFICES. Such

keep cool--cucumbers is the word.

Sailors are the only class of men who now-a-days see anything like stirring adventure; and many things which to fire-side people appear strange and romantic, to them seem as common-place as a jacket out at elbows.

I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Feegee that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Feegee, I say, in the day of judgment, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who nailest geese to the ground and feastest on their bloated livers in thy paté-de-foie-gras.

Books, gentlemen, are a species of men, and introduced to them you circulate in the very best society that this world can furnish, without the intolerable infliction of dressing to go into it.

Whenever I feel a dark November in my soul

Wild and cruel case, youth ever thinks; but mistakenly; for Experience well knows, that action, though it seems an aggravation of woe, is really an alleviative; though permanently to alleviate pain, we must first dart some added pangs.

Life is governed by chance, not wisdom.

I do not wish to seem inelegant, but this unsightly whale looks much like an amputated sow; and, as for the narwhale, one glimpse at it is enough to amaze one, that in this nineteenth century such a hippogriff could be palmed for genuine upon any intelligent public of schoolboys.

then rapidly shoving it straight out from him, with the fixed bayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object.

Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay; but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none.

The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run

and Heaven have mercy on us all--Presbyterians and Pagans alike-- for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.

Il suo dovere lo compiva sempre fedelmente; ma il dovere è talvolta un arido obbligo, ed egli era favorevole a irrigarne l'aridità, ogniqualvolta possibile, con una fertilizzante decozione di vigorose acque.

And the drawing near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell.

Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ours - watery or otherwise; that when a person placed in command over his fellow-men finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood, straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness; and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern's tower, and make a little heap of dust of it.

If a drunkard in a sober fit is the dullest of mortals, an enthusiast in a reason-fit is not the most lively. And this, without prejudice to his greatly improved understanding; for, if his elation was the height of his madness, his despondency is but the extreme of his sanity.

Ama inanç, bir çakal gibi mezar taÅŸlar? aras?nda beslenir ve en canl? umutlar?n? bile bu ölü kuÅŸkulardan devÅŸirir.

It's pleasant to sit by, a demi-god, and hear the surmisings of mortals, upon things they know nothing about; theology, or amber, or ambergris, it's all the same. But then, did I always out with every thing I know, there would be no conversing with these comical creatures.

My lord, like one's cranium, it will endure till broken.

Here the sons of adversity meet the children of calamity, and here the children of calamity meet the offspring of sin.

Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay

Hay ciertas extrañas ocasiones y coyunturas en este raro asunto entremezclado que llamamos vida, en que uno toma el entero universo por una enorme broma pesada, aunque no llega a discernirle su gracia sino vagamente, y tiene algo más que sospechas de que la broma no es a expensas sino de él mismo.

Mutluluk ???kla cilveleÅŸir, biz de dünyan?n neÅŸe dolu olduÄŸunu düÅŸünürüz. Oysa ?zd?rap uzaklarda saklan?r, bizde ?zd?rap yok san?r?z.