Showing posts with label Herman Melville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herman Melville. Show all posts

2 Jan 2010

To think's audacity. God only has that right and privilege. Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick (Laurel Press, 1987) p. 384
Originally published in 1851
There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick (Laurel Press, 1987) pp. 297-298
Originally published in 1851