Quote

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.

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
Character
Backbone
Soul
Spine
Feel
Thin
Feels
Whoever
Much
Noble
Never
Full
Upheld
Would
Rather
Skull
Men
Found
Skulls

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Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale... from hell's heart I stab at thee.
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I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb.
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The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.
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A true military officer is in one particular like a true monk. Not with more self-abnegation will the latter keep his vows of monastic obedience than the former his vows of allegiance to martial duty.
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I am, as I am whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.
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For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods even the barest, ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts, to welcome such glad-hearted visitants . . .
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Book! You lie there the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts.
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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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A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing.
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The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind but not the march of Love.
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There's something ever egotistical in mountain-tops and towers, and all other grand and lofty things.
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I never fancied broiling fowls - though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled fowl than I will.
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Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that.
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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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Let me look into a human eye it is better than to gaze into sea or sky better than to gaze upon God.
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Lo! ye believers in gods all goodness, and in man all ill, lo you! see the omniscient gods oblivious of suffering man and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.
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No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred one- I mean a downright bumpkin dandy- a fellow that, in the dog-days of summer, will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands.
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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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Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land.
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