Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare

QUOTATION: If the gods think to speak outright to man, they will honorably speak outright; not shake their heads, and give an old wives’ darkling hint.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 133, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 29, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: “Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!” deliriously howled Ahab, as the malignant iron scorchingly devoured the baptismal blood.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby Dick, ch. 7 (1851).

QUOTATION: Delight,—top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 9, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 85, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: Oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and the higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 9, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 104, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

QUOTATION: Of all mortals, some dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows ought to be indulged.
ATTRIBUTION: Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick (1851), ch. 110, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 6, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1988).

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