When we affect to condemn savages, we should remember that by doing so we asperse our own progenitors; … - Herman Melville

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

The Gospel which we possess was not given to us only to be admired, talked of, and professed - but to be practiced.

Herman Melville

When we affect to condemn savages, we should remember that by doing so we asperse our own progenitors; for they were savages also. Who can swear that among the naked British barbarians sent to Rome to be stared at more than 1500 years ago, the ancestor of Bacon might not have been found?--Why, among the very Thugs of India, or the bloody Dyaks of Borneo, exists the germ of all that is intellectually elevated and grand. We are all of us--Anglo-Saxons, Dyaks and Indians--sprung from one head and made in one image.

Civilization, Exists, India, Rome, Thug

Same Author Quotes

Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle-a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy.

Aside, Higher, Mere, Spiritual, Sweet, Wise

And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my fog with a heavenly ray. And for this I thank God; for all have doubts; many deny; but doubts or denials, few along with them, have intuitions. 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.

Enkindling, Eye, Fog, Infidel, Men, Mists

Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.

Nothing, Religion, Say, Speak, Women

All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.

Cast, Independence, Sea, Soul, Thinking, Wind

Truth is in things, and not in words.

Things, Truth, Truth Is, Words