If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
Interpretation
Melville argues that real-life events can have a more detrimental impact than harmful books, suggesting we should focus on preventing negative experiences rather than censoring literature.
In this quote, Herman Melville reflects on the idea that merely banning certain books due to their perceived harmfulness does not address the actual dangers posed by real events. He suggests that individuals who might be negatively influenced by literature would similarly be vulnerable to the harsh realities of life. Thus, it is imperative to address and restrict the harmful events in the world rather than resorting to censorship of written works, which are just reflections of human experiences and thoughts.
In practice
A speaker discussing the importance of confronting reality over censorship in a literary conference.
A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.
The Marquesan girls dance all over; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes seem to dance in their heads.
Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother 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; and this is the key to it all.
You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world.
Dollars damn me; and the malicious Devil is forever grinning in upon me, holding the door ajar. ... What I feel most moved to write, that is banned - it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches.
It is generally understood that men don't aspire after the absolute right, but only to do about as well as the rest of the world.
What if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.
Women must be freed from the idea that they always have to stay young and that they must disfigure themselves at a certain age.
I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
I've had many uncanny experiences. I think it's hard to be alive and not have them. But I don't know if I can decide what that means or what they are.
She had to live in this bright, red gabled house with the nurse until it was time for her to die... I thought how little we know about the feelings of old people. Children we understand, their fears and hopes and make-believe.
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