The quotations of

Herman Melville

American writer and poet

1819–1891

37 quotes, most often on Writing, Truth & Lies and Philosophy.

Heaven have mercy on us all⁠—Presbyterians and Pagans alike⁠—for we are all dreadfully cracked about the head and desperately in need of mending.
Moby Dick
Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilize civilization and christianize Christendom?
White-Jacket (1850), Ch. 64
- Christianity
Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay, but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none.
Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853)
- Happiness
The symmetry of form attainable in pure fiction can not so readily be achieved in a narration essentially having less to do with fable than with fact. Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges…
Billy Budd, Sailor (1891), Ch. 28
- Truth & Lies
- Writing
If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books, should be forbid.
The Encantadas (1854), Sketch Eighth
- Reading
It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.
Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)
- Writing
Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.
Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)
- Genius
Call me Ishmael.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIn context
Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIn context
- Nature
- Thinking
Who aint a slave? Tell me that.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIn context
- Freedom
There is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIn context
- Money
- Work
I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIn context
- Risk
Ignorance is the parent of fear
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIIIn context
- Fear
- Knowledge
But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter VIIIn context
- Faith
- Hope
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.
Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IXIn context
- Money
- Virtue

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