The consciousness of being deemed dead, is next to the presumable unpleasantness of being so in reality. One feels like his own ghost unlawfully tenanting a defunct carcass. – Herman Melville
A true military officer is in one particular like a true monk. Not with more self-abnegation will the latter keep his vows of monastic obedience than the former his vows of allegiance to martial duty. – Herman Melville
The lightning flashes through my skull; mine eyeballs ache and ache; my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground. – Herman Melville
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. – Herman Melville
He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. – Herman Melville
The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head – Herman Melville
Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges. – 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
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
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
A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities. – Herman Melville
At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect. – 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
Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity. – 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
Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth. – Herman Melville
Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope. – Herman Melville
Art is the objectification of feeling. – 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
