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74 Most Enlightening Herman Melville Quotes & Sayings

Herman Melville (born 1 August 1819, New York, New York, United States – died 28 September 1891, New York, New York, United States) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and poet. His best-known works include Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a novella published after his death. Herman Melville was one of the most unique and daring authors of nineteenth-century American literature.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.
A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.
I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.
I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.
Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.
Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.
I try all things, I achieve what I can.
I try all things, I achieve what I can.
As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
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.
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.
I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.
I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

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.
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.
He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.
He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.
Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
I would prefer not to.
I would prefer not to.
A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
Ignorance is the parent of fear.
Ignorance is the parent of fear.
It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.
It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.
For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.
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.
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.

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.

Herman Melville

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.

Herman Melville
Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its jagged edges.
Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its jagged edges.
Art is the objectification of feeling.
Art is the objectification of feeling.
Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.
Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.
Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.
Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.
In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.
In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.
There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too; and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is.
There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too; and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is.
See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.
See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.
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. Nothing exists in itself.
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. Nothing exists in itself.
They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.
A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.
Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.
Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.
All we discover has been with us since the sun began to roll; and much we discover, is not worth the discovering.
All we discover has been with us since the sun began to roll; and much we discover, is not worth the discovering.
There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.
There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.
A laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer.
A laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer.
Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.
Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.
War being the greatest of evils, all its accessories necessarily partake of the same character.
War being the greatest of evils, all its accessories necessarily partake of the same character.

Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Me thinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me.

Herman Melville

The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.

Herman Melville
I have no objection to any person’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don’t believe it also.
I have no objection to any person’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don’t believe it also.
Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows...
Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows...
Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them.
Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them.
If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.
If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.
I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.
I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.
Youth is the time when hearts are large.
Youth is the time when hearts are large.
Wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs.
Wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs.
Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things.
Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things.
Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
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.
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.
The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils.
The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils.

The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation. The Past is, in many things, the foe of mankind; the Future is, in all things, our friend. In the Past is no hope; The Future is both hope and fruition. The Past is the text-book of tyrants; the Future is the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot's wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.

Herman Melville
No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.
Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.
We are only what we are; not what we would be; nor every thing we hope for. We are but a step in a scale, that reaches further above us than below.
We are only what we are; not what we would be; nor every thing we hope for. We are but a step in a scale, that reaches further above us than below.
You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know anything.
You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know anything.
It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open.
It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open.
Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.
Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.
For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.
For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.
Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?
Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?
Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head.
Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head.
A good laugh is a mighty good thing, a rather too scarce a good thing.
A good laugh is a mighty good thing, a rather too scarce a good thing.
Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?
Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?
An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind; but not the march of Love.
The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind; but not the march of Love.
Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.
Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.
Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.
Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.
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.
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.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke.

There is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable affliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But being paid- what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!

Herman Melville
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