Herman Melvill

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The famous writer of Moby-Dick.

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects." 

"A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities." 

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." 

"Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian."

"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.''

"Ignorance is the parent of fear." 

"It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him."

"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme."

"To enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.''

"Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.''



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