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But I shall follow the endless, winding way, — the flowing river in the cave of man careless whither I be led, reckless where I land.

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
Shall
Reckless
Land
Careless
Way
Caves
Men
Flowing
River
Endless
Whither
Rivers
Winding
Follow
Cave

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There are doubts, sir, which, if man have them, it is not man that can solve them.
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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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Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilise civilisation and christianise Christendom?
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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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We die, because we live.
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At banquets surfeit not, but fill partake, and retire and eat not again till you crave.
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But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God - so better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! For worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land!
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It is with fiction as with religion: it should present another world, and yet one to which we feel the tie.
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Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map true places never are.
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All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys, The champions and enthusiasts of the state: Turbid ardors and vain joys Not barrenly abate-- Stimulants to the power mature, Preparatives of fate.
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Many sensible things banished from high life find an asylum among the mob.
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A book in a man's brain is better off than a book bound in calf - at any rate it is safer from criticism.
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Talk not to me of blasphemy, man I'd strike the sun if it insulted me.
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I would prefer not to.
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As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing,never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright and she is but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral.
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It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open.
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When my eye rested on an arid height, spirit partook of the barrenness. - Heartily wish Niebuhr & Strauss to the dogs. The deuce take their penetration & acumen. They have robbed us of the bloom.
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The American, who up to the present day, has evinced, in Literature, the largest brain with the largest heart, that man is Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable socialities are in me. I would sit down and dine with you and all the gods in old Rome's Pantheon. It is a strange feeling--no hopefulness is in it, no despair. Content--that is it and irresponsibility but without licentious inclination.
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The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth? — Because one did survive the wreck.
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