I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. — Herman Melville

Seldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say to this world, unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting a living. Oh! happy that the world is such an excellent listener! — Herman Melville

In one word, Queequeg, said I, rather digressively; hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple–dumpling; and since then perpetuated through the hereditary dyspepsias nurtured by Ramadans. — Herman Melville

All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad. — Herman Melville

But Captain Vere was now again motionless, standing absorbed in thought. Again starting, he vehemently exclaimed, ‘Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet that angel must hang! — Herman Melville

I try all things, I achieve what I can. — Herman Melville

I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one. — Herman Melville

Is he mad? Anyway there’s something on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks. — Herman Melville

A purse is but a rag unless you have something in it. — Herman Melville

A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard. — Herman Melville

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things. — Herman Melville

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results. — Herman Melville

As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. — Herman Melville

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. — Herman Melville

He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it. — Herman Melville

Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up. — Herman Melville

There is all the different in the world between paying and being paid. — Herman Melville

There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man. — Herman Melville

There she blows!–there she blows! A hump like a snow–hill! It is Moby Dick! — Herman Melville

I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy. — Herman Melville

If you are poor, avoid wine as a costly luxury; if you are rich, shun it as a fatal indulgence. Stick to plain water. — Herman Melville

There’s magic in the water that draws all men away form the land, that leads them over hills, down creeks and streams and rivers to the sea. — Herman Melville

It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him. — Herman Melville

Ignorance is the parent of fear. — Herman Melville

Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe. — Herman Melville

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

For there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. — Herman Melville

Will you, or will you not, quit me?’ I now demanded in a sudden passion, advancing close to him. ‘I would prefer not to quit you’, he replied, gently emphasizing the not. — Herman Melville