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Nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy, good-for-nothing, land-lubber a sailor has no bowels of compassion for him.

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
Lazy
Compassion
Nobody
Land
Pusillanimous
Nothing
Heartily
Good
Bowels
Sailor
Despised

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There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke.
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We may have civilized bodies and yet barbarous souls.
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Zeal is not of necessity religion, neither is it always of the same essence with poetry or patriotism.
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Say what some poets will, Nature is not so much her own ever-sweet interpreter, as the mere supplier of that cunning alphabet, whereby selecting and combining as he pleases, each man reads his own peculiar lesson according to his own peculiar mind and mood.
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The idea of Jehovah was born here... Out of the rude elements of the insignificant thoughts thoughts that are in all men, they reared the transcendent conception of a God.
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There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future.
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Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.
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To treat of human actions is to deal wholly with second causes.
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If Shakespeare has not been equalled, he is sure to be surpassed, and surpassed by an American born now or yet to be born.
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The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
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Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins?
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