Tag Archives: Moby Dick

Five Literary Quotes About Spring

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For those of you living on the East Coast of the United States it might be hard to believe, but spring really is on its way.  Really! Here are some quotes from literature to let you know what will soon be coming your way.

It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man’s energy. ~ The Adventure of the Copper Beeches by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

It was that period in the vernal quarter when we may suppose the Dryads to be waking for the season. The vegetable world begins to move and swell and the saps to rise, till in the completest silence of lone gardens and trackless plantations, where everything seems helpless and still after the bond and slavery of frost, there are bustlings, strainings, united thrusts, and pulls-all-together, in comparison with which the powerful tugs of cranes and pulleys in a noisy city are but pigmy efforts. ~ Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; even the barest, ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts, to welcome such glad-hearted visitants. ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville

“That is one good thing about this world. . .there are always sure to be more springs.” ~ Anne Of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The early mist had vanished and the fields lay like a silver shield under the sun. It was one of the days when the glitter of winter shines through a pale haze of spring. ~ Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Spring Quotes

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Them’s Fightin’ Words – Five Anger Quotes From Literature

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“Tell Wind and Fire where to stop,” returned madame; “but don’t tell me.” ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
I could set my ten commandments in your face. ~ Henry VI, Part Two by William Shakespeare

“How beautiful you are! You are more beautiful in anger than in repose. I don’t ask you for your love; give me yourself and your hatred; give me yourself and that pretty rage; give me yourself and that enchanting scorn; it will be enough for me.” ~ The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

“Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it.” ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville

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Anger Quotes from Liternature

 

 

 

Quotes About Picking Your Battles

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I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee. ~ The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

“My daughter, there are times of moral danger when the hardest virtuous resolution to form is flight, and when the most heroic bravery is flight.” ~ Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville

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Courage Quotes

Quotes About Courage From Literature

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Courage QuotesWhether it’s the reality of Monday morning or something more serious, we all need a bit of courage now and again.   These quotes from literature might help.

“Come when they may, they shall not find us skulking and hiding, as if we feared to take our portion of the light of day, and left it all to them.” ~ Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

“You have plenty of courage, I am sure,” answered Oz. “All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.” ~ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” ~ Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

“I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.” ~ The Final Problem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Why Read Moby-Dick?

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Why Read Moby DickI adore Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  This site’s quotation collection reflects that.  (Click here to see quotes from Moby Dick.)  However my appreciation for the novel is nothing compared to that of Nathaniel Philbrick’s.

Philbrick’s book Why Read Moby-Dick? helps us understand the time period of the book’s creation as well as showing us how it relates to our lives today.

Amazon has this to say:

Philbrick skillfully navigates Melville’s world and illuminates the book’s humor and unforgettable characters-finding the thread that binds Ishmael and Ahab to our own time and, indeed, to all times. A perfect match between author and subject, Why Read Moby-Dick? gives us a renewed appreciation of both Melville and the proud seaman’s town of Nantucket that Philbrick himself calls home. Like Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life, this remarkable little book will start conversations, inspire arguments, and, best of all, bring a new wave of readers to a classic tale waiting to be discovered anew.