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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When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the "big canoe" of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.

Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Typee (1846), ch. 4, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 1, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1968).

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