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Quotes from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War — Herman Melville

1819–1891

← All quotes by Herman Melville

11 quotes

At the height of their madness
The night winds pause,
Recollecting themselves;
But no lull in these wars.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

Zeal is not of necessity religion, neither is it always of the same essence with poetry or patriotism.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

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

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

Patriotism is not baseness, neither is it inhumanity.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

Wag the world how it will,
Leaves must be green in spring.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

Let us be Christians toward our fellow-whites, as well as philanthropists toward the blacks our fellow-men. In all things, and toward all, we are enjoined to do as we would be done by.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

Youth is the time when hearts are large,
And stirring wars
Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn
To the blade it draws.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

With shouts the torrents down the gorges go,
And storms are formed behind the storm we feel:
The hemlock shakes in the rafter, the oak in the driving keel.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

The poor old Past,
The Future's slave,
She drudged through pain and crime
To bring about the blissful Prime,
Then — perished. There's a grave!

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

For the future of the freed slaves we may well be concerned; but the future of the whole country, involving the future of the blacks, urges a paramount claim upon our anxiety. Effective benignity, like the Nile, is not narrow in its bounty, and true policy is always broad.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Herman Melville (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.