Herman Melville – 16 Quotes

16 Quotes by Herman Melville

Old age is always wakeful as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.

– Herman Melville

Art is the objectification of feeling.

– Herman Melville

To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

– Herman Melville

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

– Herman Melville

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

– Herman Melville

There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future.

– Herman Melville

Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.

– Herman Melville

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.

– Herman Melville

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

– Herman Melville

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

– Herman Melville

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

– Herman Melville

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

In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.

– Herman Melville

Truth is in things, and not in words.

– Herman Melville

Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth and go to the Soup Societies. Heavens! Let any clergyman try to preach the Truth from its very stronghold, the pulpit, and they would ride him out of his church on his own pulpit bannister.

– Herman Melville

Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

– Herman Melville