Those peculiar social sensibilities nourished by our own peculiar political principles, while they enhance the true dignity of a prosperous American, do but minister to the added wretchedness of the unfortunate; first, by prohibiting their acceptance of what little random relief charity may offer; and, second, by furnishing them with the keenest appreciation of the smarting distinction between their ideal of universal equality and their grind-stone experience of the practical misery and infamy of poverty.
Herman Melvillebeauty is like piety--you cannot run and read it; tranquility and constancy, with, now-a-days, an easy chair, are needed.
Herman MelvilleFor whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.
Herman MelvilleMan is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
Herman MelvilleLove's secrets, being mysteries, ever pertain to the transcendent and the infinite; and so they are as airy bridges, by which ourfurther shadows pass over into the regions of the golden mists and exhalations; whence all poetical, lovely thoughts are engendered, and drop into us, as though pearls should drop from rainbows.
Herman Melville