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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Aug 29

"Ignorance is the parent of fear..."
—Moby-Dick

Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Aug 1

"My cheek blanches white while I write; I start at the scratch of my pen; my own mad brood of eagles devours me; fain would I unsay this audacity; but an iron-mailed hand clenches mine in a vice, and prints down every letter in my spite."
—Herman Melville, born today in 1819

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Aug 1

"Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole."
—Herman Melville, born today in 1819

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jul 9

"There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals."
—Redburn

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 16

"In ten days I have lived ten thousand years."
—Pierre

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 13

"So long as a man-of-war exists, it must ever remain a picture of much that is tyrannical and repelling in human nature."
—White-Jacket

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 12

"Thy own skeleton, thou thyself dost carry with thee, through this mortal life; and aye would view it, but for kind nature's screen; thou art death alive."
—Mardi

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 11

"Then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul."
—Moby-Dick

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 11

"It is philanthropy to hate a misanthrope."
—The Encantadas

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 9

"When our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married; meaning, in his country's phrase, that we were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be."
—Moby-Dick

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 7

"No one could look at him without conceiving a strong dislike.... There was such an intolerable air of conceit about this man that it was almost as much as one could do to refrain from running up and affronting him."
—Omoo

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 7

"Greylock’s Most Excellent Majesty"!

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 7

"But, every night, when the curtain falls, truth comes in with darkness. No light shows from the mountain."
—The Piazza

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 6

"There is something in the contemplation of the mode in which America has been settled, that, in a noble breast, should forever extinguish the prejudices of national dislikes. Settled by the people of all nations, all nations may claim her for their own."
—Redburn

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · Jun 6

"There is infinite nonsense in the world on all of these matters; hence blame me not if I contribute my mite."
—Pierre

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 31

"All men are inspired; fools are inspired; your highness is inspired; for the essence of all ideas is infused. Of ourselves, and in ourselves, we originate nothing."
—Mardi

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 28

"Then hail, for ever hail, O sea, in whose eternal tossings the wild fowl finds his only rest. Born of earth, yet suckled by the sea; though hill and valley mothered me, ye billows are my foster-brothers!"
—Moby-Dick

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 24

Picture source: "Woman in Bonnet Reading a Book" by Maria R. Dixon

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 24

"Books, gentlemen, are a species of men, and introduced to them you circulate in the 'very best society' that this world can furnish, without the intolerable infliction of 'dressing' to go into it."
—A Thought on Book-Binding

"Woman in Bonnet Reading a Book" by Maria R. Dixon

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 23

"I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts."
—Moby-Dick

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 22

"So the blind slave obeyed its blinder lord; but, in obedience, slew him. So the creator was killed by the creature."
—The Bell-Tower

Jacquemart of the Collegiate Church of Saint Pierre in Leuven, Belgium

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 22

"Contempt is as frequently produced at first sight as love..."
—Omoo

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 21

"Money, you think, is the sole motive to pains and hazard, deception and deviltry, in this world. How much money did the devil make by gulling Eve?"
—The Confidence-Man

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 20

"When, after all this silence, his unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery, moon-lit jet, every reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit had lighted in the rigging, and hailed the mortal crew. 'There she blows!'"
—Moby-Dick

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Herman Melville @melvillequotes.bsky.social · May 20

"Appalling is the soul of a man! Better might one be pushed off into the material spaces beyond the uttermost orbit of our sun, than once feel himself fairly afloat in himself."
—Pierre

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