Quotation by Herman Melville

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"A Thought on Book-Binding" (1850) The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces 1839-1860, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 9, eds. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1987)"At the Hostelry" (posthumous) Poems, The Works of Herman Melville, vol. 16, ed. Raymond M. Weaver (1924)Babbalanja, in Mardi: and a Voyage Thither (1849)"Bartleby" (1853) The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces 1839-1860, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 9, eds. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1987)"Bartleby" (1853) The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces 1839-1860, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 9eds. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1987)

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life (23) nature (22) science (18) writers and writing (15) beauty (14) literature (14) poetry (13) poets (13) creativity (10) progress (8)

The ancients of the ideal description, instead of trying to turn their impracticable chimeras, as does the modern dreamer, into social and political prodigies, deposited them in great works of art, which still live while states and constitutions have perished, bequeathing to posterity not shameful defects but triumphant successes.

Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. "Statues of Rome" (1857-58), The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces 1839-1860, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 9, eds. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1987).

A lecture.

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