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. In your shabbiest coat and cosiest slippers you may socially chat even with the fastidious Earl of Chesterfield, and lounging under a tree enjoy the divinest intimacy with my late lord of Verulam.
Herman MelvilleIt is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realise the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.
Herman MelvilleThe world's a ship on its voyage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.
Herman MelvilleThus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous.
Herman MelvilleIt does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. 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. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.
Herman Melville