Quotes by Herman Melville

“Whatever my fate, I'll go to it laughing.”

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.”

“To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”

“Only the man who says no is free”

“Life's a voyage that's homeward bound.”

“Ignorance is the father of all fear.”

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.”

“No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.”

“Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.”

“It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.”

“The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation. The Past is, in many things, the foe of mankind; the Future is, in all things, our friend. In the Past is no hope; The Future is both hope and fruition. The Past is the text-book of tyrants; the Future is the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot's wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.”