The Quotes canon

Sourced and curated.

Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
19 quotes
Group bySubjectSpeakerEraGenre
Person·Herman Melville✕clear
Ocean and sea3 quotes
All collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago. — Herman Melville · 1851Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life. — Herman Melville · 1851Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. — Herman Melville · 1851
Whales2 quotes
And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. — Herman Melville · 1851Thou art as a lion of the waters and as a dragon of the sea. — Herman Melville · 1851
Animals1 quote
And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. — Herman Melville · 1851
Archnemesis1 quote
All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick. — Herman Melville · 1851
Charismatic megafauna1 quote
And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. — Herman Melville · 1851
Circle of life1 quote
Dies, all dies! The grass it dies, but in vernal rain Up it springs and it lives again; Over and over, again and again It lives, it dies and it lives again. — Herman Melville · 1891
Cold1 quote
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. — Herman Melville · 1851
Cure for depression1 quote
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. — Herman Melville · 1851
Death1 quote
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death. — Herman Melville · 1851
Depression1 quote
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. — Herman Melville · 1851
Divided self1 quote
Trembled to think of that mysterious thing in the soul, which seems to acknowledge no human jurisdiction, but in spite of the individual's own innocent self, will still dream horrid dreams, and mutter unmentionable thoughts. — Herman Melville · 1852
Duality of man1 quote
Trembled to think of that mysterious thing in the soul, which seems to acknowledge no human jurisdiction, but in spite of the individual's own innocent self, will still dream horrid dreams, and mutter unmentionable thoughts. — Herman Melville · 1852
Education1 quote
A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard. — Herman Melville · 1851
Effects of alcohol1 quote
Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian. — Herman Melville · 1851
European imperialism1 quote
When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the "big canoe" of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the viper whose sting is destined to poison all their joys. — Herman Melville · 1846
Fate1 quote
By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. — Herman Melville · 1851
Grass1 quote
Dies, all dies! The grass it dies, but in vernal rain Up it springs and it lives again; Over and over, again and again It lives, it dies and it lives again. — Herman Melville · 1891
Human nature1 quote
That Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity and Original Sin, from whose visitations, in some shape or other, no deeply thinking mind is always and wholly free. — Herman Melville · 1850
Hunting1 quote
And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. — Herman Melville · 1851
Inevitability of death1 quote
Aye, toil we how we may, we all sleep at last on the field. Sleep? Aye, and rust amid greenness; as last year's scythes flung down, and left in the half-cut swaths. — Herman Melville · 1851
Inner turmoil1 quote
Trembled to think of that mysterious thing in the soul, which seems to acknowledge no human jurisdiction, but in spite of the individual's own innocent self, will still dream horrid dreams, and mutter unmentionable thoughts. — Herman Melville · 1852
Man and animals1 quote
There is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men. — Herman Melville · 1851
Obsession1 quote
And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. — Herman Melville · 1851
Old age1 quote
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death. — Herman Melville · 1851
Opposites1 quote
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. — Herman Melville · 1851
Original sin1 quote
That Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity and Original Sin, from whose visitations, in some shape or other, no deeply thinking mind is always and wholly free. — Herman Melville · 1850
Revenge1 quote
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. — Herman Melville · 1851
Sailing1 quote
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. — Herman Melville · 1851
School of life1 quote
A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard. — Herman Melville · 1851
Sleep1 quote
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death. — Herman Melville · 1851