When beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean’s skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.
Herman MelvilleThe dinner-hour is the summer of the day: full of sunshine, I grant; but not like the mellow autumn of supper.
Herman MelvilleWe are not a nation, so much as a world; for unless we claim all the world for our sire, like Melchisedec, we are without father or mother.
Herman MelvilleIt is-or seems to be-a wise sort of thing, to realise that all that happens to a man in this life is only by way of joke, especially his misfortunes, if he have them. And it is also worth bearing in mind, that the joke is passed round pretty liberally & impartially, so that not very many are entitled to fancy that they in particular are getting the worst of it.
Herman Melville