Quotes from Herman Melville

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.

I would prefer not to.

Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me.

to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.

There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form.

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.

Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.

Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.

It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.

See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

The only ugliness is that of the heart, seen through the face. And though beauty be obvious, the only loveliness is invisible.

Poor people make a very poor business of it when they try to seem rich.

Never joke at funerals, or during business transactions.

Courage is the most common and vulgar of the virtues.

He who is ready to despair in solitary peril, plucks up a heart in the presence of another. In a plurality of comrades is much countenance and consolation.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight is said to be the only truth

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

Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land.