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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.

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
Nation
Nations
Father
Mother
Without
Sire
Much
Claim
Like
Claims
World
Unless

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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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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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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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There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.
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The easiest way of life is the best.
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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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Students of history are horror-struck at the massacres of old but in the shambles, men are being murdered to-day.
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We cannot live for ourselves alone.
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A man can be honest in any sort of skin.
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It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.
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To be called one thing, is oftentimes to be another.
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To treat of human actions is to deal wholly with second causes.
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People seem to have a great love for names. For to know a great many names seems to look like knowing a good many things.
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Standing navies, as well as standing armies, serve to keep alive the spirit of war even in the meek heart of peace. In its very embers and smoulderings, they nourish that fatal fire, and half-pay officers, as the priests of Mars, yet guard the temple, though no god be there.
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In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.
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This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant I act under orders.
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In a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.
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All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys.
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Let faith oust fact let fancy oust memory I look deep down and do believe.
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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.
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