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f0114d8
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The sky slides into blue, the bluffs into bloom; the rapid Mississippi expands; runs sparkling and gurgling, all over in eddies; one magnified wake of a seventy-four. The sun comes out, a golden huzzar, from his tent, flashing his helm on the world. All things, warmed in the landscape, leap. Speeds the daedal boat as a dream.
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Herman Melville |
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cd16aaf
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The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved lead that has cooled and set in the smelter's mould. The sky seemed a gray surtout. Flights of troubled gray fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled gray vapors among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters, as swall..
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foreshadow
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Herman Melville |
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0440cf8
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Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.
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Herman Melville |
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1cff665
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Round the World! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that we left behind secure, were all the time before us.
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Herman Melville |
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e092313
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and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
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Herman Melville |
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26b9de8
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To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.
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Herman Melville |
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1aab1a7
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For though consciences are as unlike as foreheads, every intelligence, not including the Scriptural devils who "believe and tremble" has one."
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Herman Melville |
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88bc48a
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For the scene of suffering is a scene of joy when the suffering is past; and the silent reminiscence of hardships departed is sweeter than the presence of delight.
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Herman Melville |
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b48c1fc
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Truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.
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Herman Melville |
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f4d86a8
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What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain't a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about- however the..
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Herman Melville |
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e0aab78
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I believe that much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul. I rejoice in my spine, as in the firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to the world.
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Herman Melville |
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734183b
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Verily there is nothing new under the sun.
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Herman Melville |
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5642be4
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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 had a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern's tower, and make a little heap of dust of ..
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Herman Melville |
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37fa543
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For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included.
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Herman Melville |
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63b76d1
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Yet, after all, insensible as he is to a thousand wants, and removed from harassing cares, my not the savage be the happier man..?
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Herman Melville |
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8222772
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In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant--the mast-head; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful. There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at old Rhodes.
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grandeur
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Herman Melville |
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6a1fdcd
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if you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.
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Herman Melville |
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77545e4
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The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch.
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heart
intellect
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Herman Melville |
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1a5bf12
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One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me a condor's quill! Give me Vesuvius' crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their out-reaching comprehensiveness of..
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literature
history
herman-melville
masterpiece
moby-dick
prose
english
quotes
novel
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Herman Melville |
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835f1bc
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I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.
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sea-voyages
wanderlust
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Herman Melville |
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855f452
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Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?
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Herman Melville |
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05503d2
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But I must be content with only one more and a concluding illustration; a remarkable and most significant one, by which you will not fail to see, that not only is the most marvellous event in this book corroborated by plain facts of the present day, but that these marvels (like all marvels) are mere repetitions of the ages; so that for the millionth time we say amen with Solomon - Verily there is nothing new under the sun.
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Herman Melville |
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9a2334a
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there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.
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Herman Melville |
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1953dd5
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Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale's there? It is the same he died with, only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem now faded away. I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death. But mark the other head's expression. See that amazing lower lip, pressed by accident against the vessel's side, as as firmly to embrace the jaw. Does not this whole head seem t..
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Herman Melville |
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f2c5082
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Here I am, proud as Greek god, and yet standing debtor to this blockhead for a bone to stand on! Cursed be that mortal inter-indebtedness which will not do away with ledgers. I would be free as air; and I'm down in the whole world's books. I am so rich, I could have given bid for bid with the wealthiest Praetorians at the auction of the Roman empire (which was the world's); and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with. By heavens! ..
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Herman Melville |
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5c21fd3
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I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him.
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Herman Melville |
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876c39a
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Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.
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Herman Melville |
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1246a28
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for I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations, never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-stool...
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Herman Melville |
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171829d
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wklm zddtu t'ml fy hdh ldhnab ljbr zd 'sfy l`jzy `n wSfh. flh fy b`D l'Hyn Hrkt wymt Swfy@ l tufsWanr, wn lHwt Hq ytHdth bhdhh lwsy'l l~ lkwn fy dhk wfTn@. wHrkt lHwt klh Hfl@ blGrb@, fkyfm 'khdhtuh bltHlyl wltshryH lm 'tjwz fy l`mq sumk bshrth! f'n 'jhlh ws'Zl 'jhlh 'bd. wdh lm '`rf Ht~ dhnabh fkyf 'fhm r'sh? thm - whdh 'blG - kyf 'drk wjhh Hyn l ykwn lh wjh? wybdw ly 'nh yqwl: str~ 'jzy'y lkhlfy@, str~ dhnaby, 'm wjhy fln trh! wlkny l 'st..
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Herman Melville |
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7c21a20
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m 'mt` l`Sf@ dh kn lbyt qwy
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Herman Melville |
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fe93480
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dh 'n dhrw@ lsrwr fy ldh@ ldf hy 'n l yfSl bynk 'nt wm thwWm fyh mn jmm wbyn brd lhw fy lkhrj shy sw~ lbTny@. `ndy'dh tstlqy k'nk qbs dfy fy jwf blwr@ qTby@.
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Herman Melville |
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660db82
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Hast seen the white whale?
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Herman Melville |
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a5f0285
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For this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error.
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Herman Melville |
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10bd7d8
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The pale Usher--threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.
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Herman Melville |
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4e8269f
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Thus, gentlemen, though an inlander, Steelkilt was wild-ocean born, and wild-ocean nurtured; as much of an audacious mariner as any.
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the-great-lakes
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Herman Melville |
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2452ba3
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With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship
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Herman Melville |
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dc400fa
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But if I know not even the tail of this whale, how understand his head? much more, how comprehend this face, when face he has none? Thou shalt see my back parts, my tail, he seems to say, but my face shall not be seen. But I cannot completely make out his back parts; and hint what he will about his face, I say again he has no face.
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Herman Melville |
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061556b
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Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on.
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Herman Melville |
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8e88d89
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Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel's great telescope; and his ears capacious as the porches of cathedrals; would that make him any longer of sight, or sharper of hearing? Not at all.--Why then do you try to "enlarge" your mind? Subtilize it"
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friedrich-wilhelm-herschel
wilhelm-herschel
philosophy
william-herschel
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Herman Melville |
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2e0bae3
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Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntaril..
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sea-stories
sailor
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Herman Melville |
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7463a81
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How dost thou know that some entire, living, thinking thing may not be invisibly and uninterpenetratingly standing precisely where thou now standest; aye, and standing there in thy spite? In thy most solitary hours, then, dost thou not fear eavesdroppers? Hold, don't speak! And if I still feel the smart of my crushed leg, though it be now so long dissolved; then, why mayst not thou, carpenter, feel the fiery pains of hell for ever, and with..
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Herman Melville |
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1467b5a
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He offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea.
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Herman Melville |
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0f7e7c8
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What he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him.
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Herman Melville |
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177661f
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Instinct and study, love and hate; Audacity-reverence. These must mate, And fuse with Jacob's heart, To wrestle with the angel -- Art.
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Herman Melville |