Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
Herman MelvilleThe western spirit is, or will yet be (for no other is, or can be) the true American one.
Herman MelvilleThe worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.
Herman MelvilleI don't know but a book in a man's brain is better off than a book bound in calf--at any rate it is safer from criticism. And taking a book off the brain, is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panel--you have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety--& even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble.
Herman Melville