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For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.

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
Life
Land
Appalling
Full
Surrounds
Known
Horrors
Lying
Surround
Half
Horror
Verdant
Peace
Ocean
Tahiti
Soul
Lies
Insular
Men
Joy
Encompassed

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The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.
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Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.
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To be called one thing, is oftentimes to be another.
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It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.
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for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men
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At length I fell asleep, with the volume in my hand and never slept so sound before
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All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask.
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Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.
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He, who, in view of its inconsistencies, says of human nature the same that, in view of its contrasts, is said of the divine nature, that it is past finding out, thereby evinces a better appreciation of it than he who, by always representing it in a clear light, leaves it to be inferred that he clearly knows all about it.
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Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.
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No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe.
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The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
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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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Whenever we discover a dislike in us, toward any one, we should ever be a little suspicious of ourselves.
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To treat of human actions is to deal wholly with second causes.
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Much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul.
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Let faith oust fact let fancy oust memory I look deep down and do believe.
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