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It may seem strange that of all men sailors should be tinkering at their last wills and testaments, but there are no people in the world more fond of that diversion.
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
People
Seem
Testaments
Strange
Tinkering
Lasts
Sailors
Last
Diversion
Seems
Wills
May
Sailor
Men
Fond
World
Testament
More quotes by Herman Melville
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A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing.
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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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Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing
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Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?
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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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There's magic in the water that draws all men away form the land, that leads them over hills, down creeks and streams and rivers to the sea.
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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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Strange as it may seem, there is nothing in which a young and beautiful female appears to more advantage than in the art of smoking.
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Those of us who always abhorred slavery as an atheistical iniquity, gladly we join in the exulting chorus of humanity over its downfall.
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In armies, navies, cities, or families, in nature herself, nothing more relaxes good order than misery.
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Yet habit - strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?
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...a man of true science uses few hard words, and those only when none other will answer his purpose Where as the smatterer in science...thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
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Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals.
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What troops Of generous boys in happiness thus bred Saturnians through life's Tempe led, Went from the North and came from the South, With golden mottoes in the mouth, To lie down midway on a bloody bed.
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A man of true science... thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.
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We are not a nation, so much as a world for unless we claim all the world for our sire, like Melchisedec, we are without father or mother.
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Nature is nobody's ally.
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We are only what we are not what we would be nor every thing we hope for. We are but a step in a scale, that reaches further above us than below.
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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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