Quote

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

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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
Wells
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Finish
Everything
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Well
Point
Ridiculous
Years
Rather
Constitution
Downright
Make
Less
Except
Cynicism
Life
Feelings
Short
Disposition
Certain
View
Irrational
Care
Unless
Sentence

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An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
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The Past is the textbook of tyrants the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot's wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.
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Surely no mere mortal who has at all gone down into himself will ever pretend that his slightest thought or act solely originates in his own defined identity.
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We should, if possible, prove a teacher to posterity, instead of being the pupil of by-gone generations. More shall come after us than have gone before the world is not yet middle-aged.
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All things that God would have us do are hard for us to do--remember that--and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade.
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Charity, like poetry, should be cultivated, if only for its being graceful.
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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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A man can be honest in any sort of skin.
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The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him but when you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet long, it takes away your appetite.
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truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.
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Wag the world how it will, Leaves must be green in Spring.
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There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear - the city of London and the South Seas.
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True places are not found on maps.
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For though consciences are as unlike as foreheads, every intelligence, not including the Scriptural devils who believe and tremble has one.
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A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.
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Though the ancients were ignorant of the principles of Christianity there were in them the germs of its spirit.
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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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Man and boy, I have lived ever since I can remember.
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But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep.
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The phantom-host has faded quite, Splendor and Terror gone-- Portent or promise--and gives way To pale, meek Dawn.
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