Herman Melville Quotes

Author Image

Herman Melville

Profession : Novelist

Birth : August 1, 1819

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

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

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

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

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville

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.

Herman Melville

There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.

Herman Melville

It is not down in any map; true places never are.

Herman Melville

Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

Herman Melville

He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.

Herman Melville

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

Herman Melville

Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.

Herman Melville

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

Herman Melville

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

Herman Melville

Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

Herman Melville

Whatever fortune brings, don't be afraid of doing things.

Herman Melville

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

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

To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment.

Herman Melville