Herman Melville

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

"Amity itself can only be maintained by reciprocal respect, and true friends are punctilious equals."

"At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect."

"Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope."

"Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?"

"Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, - for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it - not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation."

"They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure."

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