People think that if a man has undergone any hardship, he should have a reward; but for my part, if I have done the hardest possible day's work, and then come to sit down in a corner and eat my supper comfortably -why, then I don't think I deserve any reward for my hard day's work -for am I not now at peace? Is not my supper good?
Herman MelvilleThe worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.
Herman MelvilleLet America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land.
Herman MelvilleI will live and die by this testimony: that I loved a good conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty; and that I preserved my own.
Herman MelvilleOut of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters.
Herman MelvilleCivilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.
Herman MelvilleThe earliest instinct of the child, and the ripest experience of age, unite in affirming simplicity to be the truest and profoundest part for man. Likewise this simplicity is so universal and all-containing as a rule for human life, that the subtlest bad man, and the purest good man, as well as the profoundest wise man, do all alike present it on that side which they socially turn to the inquisitive and unscrupulous world.
Herman Melville