Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.
("Moby-Dick")
More Quotes from Herman Melville:
Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing eastward we could forever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strangethan any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage.Herman Melville
Out of natural courtesy he received, but did not appropriate. It was like a gift placed in the palm of an outreached hand upon which the fingers do not close.
Herman Melville
There is all of the difference in the world between paying and being paid.
Herman Melville
There seems no reason why patriotism and narrowness should go together, or why intellectual fairmindedness should be confounded with political trimming, or why serviceable truth should keep cloistered because not partisan
Herman Melville
Nevertheless the sun hides not Virginia's Dismal Swamp, nor Rome's accursed Campagna, nor wide Sahara, nor all the million miles of deserts and of griefs beneath the moon. The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true -- not true, or undeveloped.
Herman Melville
Is he mad Anyway there's something on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks.
Herman Melville
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Based on Topics: God Quotes, Life QuotesBased on Keywords: narcissus, persians, tormenting, ungraspable
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