Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life.

Herman Melville

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Buy Moby Dick at Amazon Buy Moby Dick at Amazon
Read Moby-Dick at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Ocean and sea Water

Author

Herman Melville

Source

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. London: Richard Bentley/New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 1.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Herman Melville about ocean and sea: “Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give…”
Download
A quote by Herman Melville about ocean and sea: “Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give…”
Download
A quote by Herman Melville about ocean and sea: “Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give…”
Download

Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1850s

I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands.

Abraham Lincoln

More information about this quote
Topic
Equality
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1859 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio. 17 Sept. 1859, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 1859." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote about Ocean and sea

Lighter than a cork I danced on the waves.

Arthur Rimbaud

The Drunken Boat

Buy a book containing this poem at Amazon Buy a book containing this poem at Amazon
Read this poem at poetryfoundation.org
More information about this quote
Topic
Ocean and sea

Author

Arthur Rimbaud
Source
The Drunken Boat
Medium
Poem
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
French
Time
1871 1870s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Rimbaud, Arthur. "Le Bateau Ivre [The Drunken Boat]." Les Poetes Maudits, edited by Paul Verlaine. Paris, 1884.

Current Citation

Rimbaud, Arthur. "Le bateau ivre/The Drunken Boat." Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, a Bilingual Edition, translated by Wallace Fowlie. University of Chicago Press, 2005.