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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.

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
Less
Fables
Fact
Readily
Facts
Achieved
Form
Essentially
Fable
Truth
Edges
Narration
Always
Pure
Attainable
Fiction
Ragged
Told
Symmetry

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Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.
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I baptize you not in the name of the father, but in the name of the devil. (Ego baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli.)
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Thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous.
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Whatever has made, or does make, or may make music, should be held sacred as the golden bridle-bit of the Shah of Persia's horse,and the golden hammer, with which his hoofs are shod.
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In armies, navies, cities, or families, in nature herself, nothing more relaxes good order than misery.
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Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
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There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is.
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Cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone and horrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and condemned, still I assert that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous.
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In a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.
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Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
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The easiest way of life is the best.
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Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.
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Our institutions have a potent digestion, and may in time convert and assimilate to good all elements thrown in, however originally alien.
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The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run
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The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
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Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?
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To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it.
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Meditation and water are wedded for ever.
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Nature is nobody's ally.
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I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations, no matter how comical.
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