Herman Melville

"All endeavors call upon us to do what we ought; therefore all just enterprises teach us our duty."

"Some certain significance lurks in all things, or nothing is significant."

"The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity."

"What a strange thing is the propagation of life."

"No philosophy can make us wise in that way; no teaching of books or sages can substitute the experience of life."

"To be something under the sun and not know what you are, is a predicament not without ludicrousness."

"Call me Ishmael, or call me a seeker of truth."

"There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast."

"A man must learn to struggle with the winds of fortune."

"The world does seem to run on deceit, does it not."

"But I felt as if I had been wandering in some endless, aimless, purposeless realm."

"Take heart from the knowledge that unquestionably we shall triumph."

"I love all men who dive."

"Youth is the first victim of war."

"Hell is an idea first, and we are all builders."

"Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unseen."

"There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke."

"To live is to function. That is all there is to living."

"Patience is something that cannot be taught but must be learned through suffering."

"A laugh is a terrible weapon of understanding."

"In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport."

"Some invisible force guides us all, but few are wise enough to follow it."

"The very essence of truth is that it requires constant vigilance and reassessment."

"What is any book but an attempt to establish truth."

"Meditation and water are wedded forever."

"Art comes from the soul first, and the hand follows."

"I stand alone in myself, responsible only to myself."

"To know oneself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"There is a power in truthfulness that cannot be resisted by deceit."

"The deepest sense of being is found in solitude."