None but a good man is really a living man, and the more good any man does, the more he really lives. All the rest is death, or belongs to it.
Interpretation
A truly living person embodies goodness and altruism; their actions define their existence.
Herman Melville emphasizes that true life is characterized by acts of goodness and kindness. He suggests that a person's worth and life force are amplified through their contributions to others, while selfishness and malice lead to a state akin to death, devoid of meaningful existence.
In practice
In a motivational speech about community service and helping others.
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.
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.
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.
I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words
The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.
The unity of the bourgeoisie can be shaken only by the unity of the proletariat.
In what terms should we think of these beings, nonhuman yet possessing so very many human-like characteristics? How should we treat them? Surely we should treat them with the same consideration and kindness as we show to other humans; and as we recognize human rights, so too should we recognize the rights of the great apes? Yes.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.