Quote

God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever that vulture the very creature he creates.

Herman Melville

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Herman Melville
Age: 72 †
Born: 1819
Born: August 1
Died: 1891
Died: September 28
Art Collector
Essayist
Lecturer
Literary Critic
Novelist
Poet
Sailor
Teacher
Writer
Manhattan borough
New York City
Hermann Melville
Herman Melvill
Makes
Thus
Ever
Creatures
Prometheus
Heart
Created
Vulture
Men
Whose
Feeds
Thinking
Thoughts
Creature
Help
Creates
Upon
Intense
Helping
Thee

More quotes by Herman Melville

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Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself but is an errand-boy in heaven nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power how then can this one small heart beat this one small brain think thoughts unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.
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That mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true--not true, or undeveloped.
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Is he mad? Anyway there's something on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks.
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Old age is always wakeful as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.
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Youth is the time when hearts are large, And stirring wars Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn To the blade it draws.
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What man who carries a heavenly soul in him, has not groaned to perceive, that unless he committed a sort of suicide as to the practical things of this world, he never can hope to regulate his earthly conduct by that same heavenly soul?
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Better be secure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions of monarchs, though oneself be one of them.
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Let me look into a human eye it is better than to gaze into sea or sky better than to gaze upon God.
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For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.
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It is a thing which every sensible American should learn from every sensible Englishman, that glare and glitter, gimcracks and gewgaws, are not indispensable to domestic solacement.
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Immortality is but ubiquity in time.
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Let us pray that the great historic tragedy of our time may not have been enacted without instructing our whole beloved country through terror and pity and may fulfillment verify in the end those expectations which kindle the bards of Progress and Humanity.
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As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
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A man can be honest in any sort of skin.
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Twelve o'clock! It is the natural centre, key-stone, and very heart of the day. At that hour, the sun has arrived at the top of his hill and as he seems to hang poised there a while, before coming down on the other side, it is but reasonable to suppose that he is then stopping to dine setting an eminent example to all mankind.
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It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
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I am, as I am whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.
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contempt is as frequently produced at first sight as love.
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No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
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At my years, and with my disposition, or rather, constitution, one gets to care less and less for everything except downright goodfeeling. Life is so short, and so ridiculous and irrational (from a certain point of view) that one knows not what to make of it, unless--well, finish the sentence for yourself.
Herman Melville